Mirror Moves
by Hope Strong
Summary: Sequel to 'Let Me Sleep.' The Mistress is back, and now her plans include erasing Jen's family from history...starting in the 21st century. complete
1. chapter 1

Disclaimer: Power Rangers Time Force, characters' names, distinctive likenesses logos and all related indicia are copyright trademarks of Buena Vista entertainment, 2002. They are being used here without permission for personal non-profitable ends. The Mistress, Jessica and any other character not created for the show belong to me.  
  
A.N: This takes place a little over ten months after the end of "Let Me Sleep". I also have assumed the Rangers don't have to travel back one thousand years exactly, so the time that has passed since "Time Force" for the guys in the future and the guys in our time hasn't been the same. Again, I'd like to thank Cmar for beta-reading this and helping me out.  
  
Mirror Moves By Shirley Chong.  
  
"Posed bodies, no traces," Alex said softly. "This looks familiar." "It does indeed," said his companion.  
  
They looked around the room again. Living room, home to one man, a scientist, who was recognized for his work helping Time Force with mutant capture and disposal. He had just provided the Time Force officers a weapon that allowed them to freeze the criminals on the crime scene, so they were easier to deal with before the trials. Right at that moment, he lay dead next to his wife on their bed; they were holding each other's hand and almost kissing. The position gave the brutal crime a macabre feeling.  
  
Alex walked out of the house towards the garden, to try his luck there. He then saw a motorcycle approaching the house, stopping right next to his SUV. The woman riding got off the bike and took off her helmet and her gloves. She looked at him, smiling, and walked towards him.  
  
"You do know that bike might be the reason we can't have children, don't you?" he asked her. She smiled wider and touched her nose to his.  
  
"The bike has got nothing to do with it," she said softly. They kissed.  
  
"Jennifer, you really should be more careful," he said, running his hand through her hair. "I don't want you to suffer more than you already have."  
  
"Than we already have, Alex, don't try to pretend this doesn't hurt you too," she told him, caressing his hair in return.  
  
"Would you mind doing that in your private time?" a voice called him.  
  
"No, dad, not at all," Alex said, letting go of his wife. "Ok, let me give you all the details--"  
  
"Doctor Christopher Jenkins, worked for Time Force, developed the new freezing blasters, killed along with his wife, they had no children, no sign of how they died or how the killer entered their home. The both show perfect health as far as our untrained eyes can see, but they ARE dead, and they have been posed in a rather macabre position," she summarized before he could even open his mouth. "I know," she added smiling.  
  
"I hate it when you do that," he said playfully.  
  
"You hate it when I read the preliminary reports?" she asked.  
  
"You didn't read any preliminary reports, you read my mind."  
  
"Actually, I read your father's," she said matter-of-factly. "There are a few interesting things about a certain boy falling off a bed." She stopped talking when he put a hand on her mouth.  
  
"That's one of the most horrible memories of my childhood."  
  
"THAT is a horrible memory from your childhood?" she asked in disbelief.  
  
"Yes," he admitted, his cheeks going slightly pink. "So what?"  
  
"You are such a spoiled brat!" she commented and walked towards the house.  
  
"I am not!" he called after her. She just shook her head.  
  
Inside the house was a mess. All the furniture had been torn apart and the pieces had been thrown to the most unbelievable places. The fireplace was still warm, which meant it had been on until not a long time ago. Several members of the forensics area of Time Force were picking up evidence. She took off her coat, and folded it around one of her arms. The room was very hot, and it was filled with thoughts.  
  
It had been little over a year since she had discovered her psychic powers. It had been hard for a while, and her enemy had escaped, but everything had turned out fine. She had spent a couple of weeks unconscious after the final night of that case, and it had been hard to realize she was asleep, and wake up, after spending almost a month believing herself married to Alex.  
  
However, not even two months after she woke up she was actually married to Alex, her depression completely vanished and a bright future ahead of her. Alex's mother had been away since that night, and everything just seemed perfect in her life.  
  
Some time after they got married, she and Alex had started talking about children. That's when their skies had gone back to gray. She had gotten pregnant twice in a little over five months, but had lost both babies to early miscarriages. She and Alex kept their hopes high, and, given the fact that they couldn't conceive, they had available resources to have a child who would be theirs genetically, even if Jen didn't go through the pregnancy.  
  
She sighed, her thoughts returning to the task at hand. She climbed a flight of stairs and entered the bedroom. The victims were, like Alex had thought, posed in a rather macabre position. The image seemed strangely familiar to Jen, but she couldn't remember from where, maybe it was a movie or something.  
  
She closed her eyes, trying to catch some brain waves left over. The brain kept working long after the heart has stopped, and the brain waves could stay in a room for weeks. This room contained some thoughts; Jen rapidly picked them up, trying to get an idea of what had happened there.  
  
We never go out anywhere. This came from the woman.  
  
I wonder when she got so boring. This came from the man.  
  
Why couldn't we at least have children? The woman. Jen knew how that felt.  
  
I have a lot of work to do tomorrow, that presentation and then the test for the new Ranger suit. The man again and Jen wondered what Ranger suit was he talking about.  
  
We'll have to go out for lunch tomorrow. Woman.  
  
I'll have to get back tomorrow to the lab first thing in the morning. Man.  
  
Maybe we could take a vacation together. Wife.  
  
How much will I have to pay this month for the electricity we've consumed? I've been working a lot at home lately. Husband.  
  
What was that noise? Scared woman.  
  
Oh, no, now she'll want me to go and check. Annoyed man.  
  
Come closer, closer so I can do my job. Anticipating monster.  
  
I wonder why I always have to-- Last thought of the husband.  
  
What's taking him so long? AAAAH!! A mutant!! Oh, my God! He just killed-- Last thought of the wife.  
  
Jen opened her eyes and walked out of the bedroom, going down the stairs towards the living room. Alex was standing there, talking to Major Logan. She approached them.  
  
"Their marriage was falling apart," she said.  
  
"Whose marriage?" Logan asked.  
  
"Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins's," She said. "He didn't love her anymore, but she still loved him."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"Thoughts from last night are still trapped in the room," Jen said. "She used the word 'we' when thinking and her last thought was 'oh, my God, he killed.'. The good doctor thought only about himself, not including his wife in any of his pondering. His last thought was a complaint. He didn't love her anymore, but she still loved him."  
  
"How can you be sure about that?" Logan asked.  
  
"The day I start thinking about my marriage in terms of 'him and me' instead of 'us', I'll know I have stopped loving my husband," she said, looking at Alex and taking his hand in hers. "Every time I think about something related to us, I use the words 'us' or 'we'. And so does Alex." She looked into her husband's eyes and smiled.  
  
"I'll take off, I'm not a big fan of sweet talk," Logan said and accompanied his words with actions.  
  
Alex wrapped his arms around Jen's waist, pulling her closer to his body. She wrapped her arms around his neck and they kissed. Since they had gotten married they had stopped having problems with showing the affection they had for each other in public. Jen remembered that four years before that day, Alex would have never kissed her the way he was doing it, in the middle of a crime scene.  
  
"So, you've been checking if I think about us in terms of 'us' and not 'you and me'?" he asked playfully.  
  
"Not really on purpose," she said, gazing into his eyes that shone romantically as they met hers. "But you broadcast!" she complained.  
  
"So you think I always think about 'us' as an unit?" he asked, moving even closer to her.  
  
She lifted her mouth to his ear and whispered: "Except when you are admiring my body. In those moments you usually refer to me as 'one hot heavenly creation'. And I have to admit, I think the same thing about you," her tone was sexy, hissing and she made herself sure her breath caressed the side of his neck while she talked.  
  
This time he didn't blush slightly. He blushed furiously red, swallowed hard and the blood of his body traveled south with extreme velocity. Jen chuckled at his reaction. "Don't worry baby, I like it. I like the thoughts you have about my butt and about my curves and about my breast ." she continued enumerating the parts of her body he liked to stare at when he thought she wasn't noticing. As the parts of her body got more and more spicy, his blush just got redder and redder, and with all the activity in the south area, Jen wondered if there was any blood left in his body, beside the one he was using to blush and to.  
  
"Alexander!" they heard his father call. They let go and Alex positioned his hands in a way his father couldn't notice the consequences of Jen's teasing. She crossed her arms, to hide her own arousal which was displayed in her breasts.  
  
"Yes, Dad?" Alex asked as seriously as he could.  
  
"I just got a call from our butler," his father said, his attitude was excited and his voice was happy. "She's back! And she's safe!" he told him, grasping his son by the shoulders and pulling him into a hug. Alex tried to stay as apart from his father as he could, and Jen snorted at her husband's situation.  
  
"Who's back?" Alex asked his father, softly pushing away from him and breaking the embrace.  
  
"Well, Alexander!" he said angrily putting his hands to his waist. "Your mother!" he continued.  
  
Alex was left open mouthed and he glanced at Jen. All signs of happiness were gone from her face, and her lower lip was trembling. He took her hand, but her eyes still got tearful.  
  
"Hey," he whispered, hugging her. "There's nothing she can do now."  
  
"Look around, Alex," she whispered back in his ear so his father couldn't hear her. "She's already doing something."  
  
To be continued. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
  
"Where is she?" Alex asked his father while he still hugged Jen.  
  
"She's home," he said. "I'm assuming you will come with me immediately. Jen too, of course."  
  
"No," Jen said quickly. "This is a family moment. I'd rather stay here and keep looking for clues."  
  
"Nonsense!" Mr. Drake said. He grabbed her hand and patted it softly. "You are family now, Jennifer," he assured her.  
  
Jen shook her head. "I'd rather not go," she said, lowering her head. "Mrs. Drake doesn't like me much," she whispered.  
  
"And what is she going to do?" the old man asked playfully. "Put a gun to your head and force you to sign divorce papers? Oh, please!"  
  
Jen looked at Alex. They hadn't told Mr. Drake anything about his wife being The Mistress, and he obviously hadn't figured it out. He had no idea of just how dangerous his wife was.  
  
"Dad, if Jen feels uncomfortable, maybe it would be better if she didn't go," Alex agreed.  
  
Alex's father shrugged. "Well, if that's the case, I'll see you at home." He walked away.  
  
Alex took both of Jen's hands and looked into her eyes. She seemed scared. "Hey, hey," he started, kissing her softly on the forehead. "Go from here to Time Force headquarters. I'll pick you up at your office, go there with an escort, please," he instructed.  
  
"Alex, I'm scared, she hates me," she said.  
  
"Hey, no problem," he assured her, hugging her. "I'll solve this thing tonight, okay? Our marriage is safe, our love is safe, we are safe," he told her.  
  
"This is a good moment to think in terms of you and me," she said, her broken voice sounding like a whisper. "You are safe, I am not."  
  
"To get to you, she's going to have to kill me first, and we both know she won't do that." They kissed deeply, and then looked into each other's eyes when they broke apart.  
  
"You and me, Jennifer."  
  
"Forever."  
  
"I love you," he said pressing his forehead against hers.  
  
"I love you too," she answered.  
  
"Go somewhere safe," he instructed and then left. Jen stared after him holding her breath.  
  
She bit her lip. She was scared, really afraid for her life. She knew the attack against the good doctor and his wife was nothing but a distraction; if The Mistress was back, she no longer cared much about mutants, or about the people who had removed her license, who had destroyed her dreams. If she was back, she was back for one thing: to get her. Jen knew destroying her was The Mistress's new reason to be and that she wouldn't stop until Jen was apart from Alex. Or even worse, dead.  
  
Jen lifted her morpher to her mouth and called. "Lucas?"  
  
"I hear you Jen," he answered.  
  
"Are you with Katie or Trip?"  
  
"Yes, I'm with Katie."  
  
"Would you two please pick me up at my crime scene, I need an escort."  
  
"Escort?" Lucas asked worriedly. "Why?"  
  
"I'm a potential victim."  
  
"Ok, stay where everyone can see you, we are on our way there," Lucas assured her and closed the communication.  
  
Jen walked back to the house and sat on the stairs of the porch. Her hands were shaking, and her powers started to get out of control.  
  
*************************  
  
Samantha Drake sat on her bed, wearing a silk nightgown, while a doctor checked her health. She was thin and pale, but her lips were pursed in a disapproving look, that intensified when Alex entered the room.  
  
"I heard," she said as a salutation.  
  
"Hello Mom, it's good to see you are fine," Alex said, kissing her forehead. He was resented and hurt, but since his father didn't know about his mother's secret he had to pretend.  
  
"Samantha!" Alex's father said excitedly, holding his wife. She hugged him back just as strongly. Alex sat next to the bed, certain that he wasn't the only one playing a part in that room.  
  
"Richard!" she said effusively. They even kissed softly. "You've been everything I've thought of for the past months."  
  
"I can say the same," he answered sweetly. The doctor finished his exams and stood smiling.  
  
"Mrs. Drake is fine, she just needs to sleep in a comfortable bed, eat well and take a warm bath, which I believe she already did," he said.  
  
"Thanks, doctor," Richard said.  
  
"I'll see you to the door," Alex told him and stood up, walking to the door with the other man. Once Alex and the doctor were out of the room, Samantha looked at her husband.  
  
"Richard," she started. "Why did you let Alex marry that farm girl?"  
  
"Jennifer?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"She's a good girl, she works hard, and something you can't deny is that they love each other, Alex and her."  
  
"She comes from a farm."  
  
"So what? She's been living in the city for a long time, and she has trained in Time Force as hard as Alex has."  
  
"That doesn't change her genes!"  
  
"She is no worse than Alex. I dare say she's even better," Richard said playfully.  
  
Samantha crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him angrily.  
  
"How dare you say that? I made Alexander myself, and he is as good as they get!"  
  
"But she has these powers, and they are really strong and she has a great deal of control over it, and these great faculties as an officer, she is the Pink Ranger and--"  
  
"That doesn't justify this marriage, she's poor, she comes from a farm and-- "  
  
"She signed the prenuptial agreement without complain."  
  
"I suppose they have this awful idea of having children now."  
  
"They have tried, but she has miscarried both of them. Their morale was low for a while."  
  
"You knew I opposed that marriage, why did you agree to it?"  
  
"Because Alexander is a grown man, and my opinion really doesn't make any difference in his life. Nor does yours."  
  
Samantha looked away, he was right. It had taken her too long to come back, and she was too late to forbid the wedding. So now she had to tear them apart. She had to come up with a plan and it had to be quick.  
  
****************************** Jen started to lose control of her powers as she grew more nervous; she moved around the house mentally, picking stuff up, checking it out, and watching for clues. She didn't mean to actually lift any of the objects, but soon she felt a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Captain," She looked up, it was Major Logan.  
  
"Sir," she said.  
  
"You are moving the objects inside of the house, the investigators don't appreciate it," he told her.  
  
"Oh, sorry," she said distractedly, putting all the objects back where they belonged. "I'll try to focus on something else," she said.  
  
What was that new Ranger suit the doctor had been thinking about before he died? Was it an upgrade for their suits, or was it a new Ranger? If it was, was it Alex? Was it anyone else?  
  
Her mind was uneasy, so she focused on her motorcycle. She lifted it from the ground and then put it back down. Up, Down. Up, Down. Up, this is getting boring, Down. Up, This was never fun actually, Down. Up, maybe I could start reading minds while Lucas and Katie get here, Down. Up, I'll do that, Down.  
  
She left the motorcycle alone and returned her attention to the house, to the people inside. Their minds were incredibly vague and vulgar. Nothing out of the ordinary in any of them. She mentally walked through the house, reading the first thought of each person. Most of them were related to the case, a couple of them were related to how hot she looked in her new uniform, and others were related to how lucky Alex was to have married her, and how much of a lucky bitch she was to be Alex's wife.  
  
She smiled at those, she had to admit she was lucky to be married to Alex, especially after she broke up with him. It had been such a wonderful moment when he had taken her back, after she had thought she had lost him forever. But she had been wrong, he still loved her and they had gotten married, and they were going to be together for the rest for their lives. She was thinking about Alex when she picked up the strangest thought.  
  
When will they all leave? When will they leave? They make so much noise, they are hunting me, I want them all out, I want them all out!  
  
"Now, what's this?" she said. The voice was almost like a roar, it was deep, as if the person talking liked to force it into sounding darker.  
  
I want to go home, but I can't while they are still out there. They make so much noise, I can't sleep, I can't think, she didn't say they'd be here, she lied, she always lies. Always lies.  
  
The voice sounded almost familiar, but it sounded weak. However, it was his words that tipped Jen to the identity of the secret thinker. "She always lies," she repeated. "The Mistress always lies," she remembered that from a year ago.  
  
She heard someone call her name and looked up. Lucas and Katie were there, walking towards her. "Jen, are you ok?" Katie asked.  
  
"Do they already know who did this?" Lucas asked.  
  
"Yes, and maybe," she answered. "We think it was The Mistress."  
  
"You mean she's back?" the Black girl asked, her voice tainted with fear.  
  
"Yes, she is home right now, Alex and his father went there to see her."  
  
"But why this?" Lucas asked. "And how do you go from a dead doctor to a dead you?"  
  
"In the beginning I thought this was a distraction. Now I think she just needed the house, and thought it appropriate to kill the man who created a weapon that makes her beloved mutants so vulnerable to us." Jen explained.  
  
"What makes you think she wanted the house?"  
  
"I heard a voice, you know, thoughts."  
  
"And?"  
  
"It didn't belong to any of the humans inside of that house, it was someone else, up in the attic."  
  
"Want us to go and check it out?"  
  
"No need," she said. "I already know who it is."  
  
"Who is it?"  
  
"It's Ransik."  
  
To be continued. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Wes could hear her coughing through the wall. He knew the whole fight had been a theater, played in order to get him out of the room for the night. Jessica wasn't the kind of person who liked to have someone caring about her; she claimed she didn't know how to deal with that.

When he had first met her, he had been attracted to her because she looked like Jen, the way he looked like Alex. She was even bossy and stern, like Jen had been when he had first met her, but Jessica had green eyes and red hair.

Wes had convinced her to go out on a date with him after months of asking, but she had been harder to convince than Jen. If he had thought Jen was workaholic it was because he hadn't met Jessica Smith yet. Jessica lived for Bio-Lab. She ate, dreamed and lived Bio-Lab, if somebody took the enterprise away from her, he was certain she wouldn't know what to do with her life.

The dating had been hard, with all the work they had ahead of them to help Bio-Lab recover from the past years, when it had had a lot of losses, thanks to projects like the Raimei tank, and with the Silver Guardians working for the city for free. Wes felt a little guilty about the last one, but it was overall a good thing for the city.

Jessica and he had been married eight months ago, and he loved her deeply, for who she was, he no longer loved her resemblance to Jen. He knew he loved Jessica, as bossy and cold to him as she was. Not a lot of people understood how he could marry a woman as cold as Jessica, claimed she didn't seem to love him as much as he loved her, and complained that the best show of affection she had for him was picking up his clothes every morning.

But Wes knew better. He knew Jessica loved him deeply, as much as he loved her. He knew that if it came to it, she would do anything for him, anything at all, even giving Bio-Lab away, which to her was the most sacred thing in the world, as she had inherited the position of vice-president from her father, the way Wes had inherited the president's chair.

Jessica had been an affectionate girlfriend, not the most loving, but caring enough. And then her mother had come back from a trip around Europe she had taken after Jessica's father had died. Jessica had visited her often, always returning to him tense and upset. The day of their wedding, the old woman had taken her daughter away from the party right before they left on their honeymoon. After that conversation, Jessica had been growing colder and harsher to him, up until that day.

She coughed louder and harder. She sounded out of breath. Wes began to get worried about her, but had doubts about going to check on her, she was very independent and hated to make other people worry about her, and she actually got mad at the people who did. She would rather die alone than asking anyone for help, mostly because she thought it bothered the person who was asked, and because no matter what it was, she could do it on her own.

So that night, she had told him off because of some deal they were to make with a Brazilian company, and after a lot of yelling, she had asked him to please get out of the room and sleep in one of the guest rooms. He had silently picked up his briefcase and left the room, not really understanding what he had done wrong.

Now he understood. He was very caring to Jessica and she didn't like it, or that's what she wanted him to believe. She kept coughing. Wes got out of bed and walked out of the room, towards the next room, where his wife was sleeping. He entered without knocking. She was lying face up on the bed, and she seemed out of breath.

"Jess," he called. She coughed louder. He approached the bed.

"Wesley," she began, and coughed some more. "I'm sorry; I tried to keep it down. I didn't want to wake you up."

"It's okay," he said, caressing her forehead softly. She was really hot. "Jess, you are burning up," he told her.

She shook her head. "I'm fine," she said again, interrupted by coughing. "It's nothing. I'll be fine, go to sleep, we have a meeting with the Canadian representative tomorrow, rest, I'll be fine," she told him, between coughs.

"No, I'll see if we have something for the fever," he said walking to the bathroom.

"Wesley, honestly, I'm fine," she called after him.

Wes opened the medicine cabinet and frowned. They had nothing but aspirin. He was going to have to go out for something, he wasn't sure aspirin would help her with the fever, but he was sure it wasn't going to help her with the coughing. He put on a pair of pants and a shirt and walked out of the bathroom.

Jessica was seated on the edge of the bed. He ran to her and kneeled next to her, pushing her shoulder back softly.

"Hey, hey," he said tenderly. "Lie back, you need to rest." He helped her back to her pillows.

She took his hand in a surprisingly tender manner. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"I'm going to get you some medication," he said. She shook her head and grabbed his hand even harder.

"Please, don't. I didn't mean to bother you, go back to sleep, I'll be fine." She hadn't actually finished saying that, when a fit of coughing took her, and she grasped both of Wes's shoulders as she coughed her lungs out. She could barely breathe, and Wes, not knowing what else to do, wrapped his arms around her waist, as she collapsed against his chest.

"I think I won't need to go and get you medication," he said softly.

"Thanks," she said, believing he meant he was going back to sleep.

"I'll get your coat, we're going to the hospital," he said, putting her back on her pillows, as she grasped his shirt.

"No, please, no," she begged.

"Jess, you need it."

"I'm fine!" she said forcefully, which made her cough some more.

"You are not!" Wes snapped back. She shrank back on her pillows. "You have fever, and you can barely breath, we are going to the hospital and that's it!" he said with a surprising amount of discipline in his voice. Jessica looked away from him and continued her coughing.

He found her some clothes and helped her into them. She seemed definitely made uncomfortable by his caring. She kept squirming away from his arms, whenever she could.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"You know I don't like to be touched much," she answered. "And I could have put on my own clothes."

He helped her get downstairs, and into the car. He turned on the car and started his way to the hospital.

"Why are you driving?" she asked with thick voice.

"Because I thought you wouldn't want to wake Philips too," he said, smiling at her. She gave him what he chose to think was a smile. "We'll be there in no time at all," he assured her.

That time, she did smile weakly.

Samantha Drake looked at the picture that displayed to her from her computer. It was a picture taken from a newspaper database through the time stream investigation department.

It showed a blond man and a red haired woman smiling at a camera as they stood in front of the logo of an enterprise. The caption read: "An accident at Bio-Lab took Jessica Collins to the verge of death, but experiments by the enterprise she inherited along with her husband have miraculously saved her life."

"Well, well, well," she said cheerfully. "Curious turn of destiny, now it appears both Alexander and that farm girl apparently came from the same union. How sweet." She said it bitterly, with marked sarcasm. She looked at the other file she had opened. It contained more information about the Collins marriage, and stated they were on the verge of divorce due to irreconcilable differences. It also stated they had had no children. "Then, maybe they don't come from the same place," she added. "If that's the case, it's up to me to keep that redhead from reproducing with any other man. I guess the best I can do is keep that 'miraculous recovery' from happening,"

To be continued.


	4. chapter 4

Chapter 4  
  
"Jen is not going, period."  
  
"But, Alex."  
  
"I said she's not going, Katie," Alex said, lifting both arms. The research assistants pasted different measurement gear onto his arms, his back, and the sides of his chest.  
  
"But, Jen was the one who found he was there, she deserves to go!" Katie said. "Not to mention, she is the only one who can detect a trap."  
  
"She's not going," Alex said simply. "I can detect a trap. And, in case you have chosen not to think about this, if it is a trap, it's to get her."  
  
"Well, I give you that," Katie said. "But, don't you think she deserves to decide if she wants to hide or fight?"  
  
"No," Alex said, and his entire body shuddered when one of the assistants stuck an electrode covered in cold gel to his left nipple. "Because she's going to choose to fight and it won't do her any good."  
  
"It's her life," Katie said forcefully. "And she has the right to choose what to do with it."  
  
"She's my wife!" Alex said forcefully in his turn. "And I swore to protect her from any harm!"  
  
"And what's your plan? Locking her in the house forever? Because she's a Time Force officer, just like you and me, and she likes the risk."  
  
"Not this risk," Alex said softly. The assistants ceased all contact with his body and walked towards their computers. "You haven't seen her, you don't sleep in the same bed with her and you don't know what she's going through."  
  
"First, I have seen her, she's thin and tired. Not to mention the other day I got a taste of the horrible images that go through her mind when she accidentally sent them my way with her telepathy powers. Second, I'm sure the fact that we don't sleep in the same bed is a very good thing and third." Katie shut up and took a deep breath. "All right, I really don't know what she's going through, but I'm sure it doesn't feel good. That's why we want to help her!"  
  
"This discussion isn't about you wanting to help Jennifer or not," Alex said. "This discussion is about the reasons why Jennifer is not going with us to that house."  
  
"Us?" Katie repeated. "Exactly what makes you think she's not going to pull the husband card and ask YOU not to go because it's dangerous? At least she's a Ranger."  
  
"Nothing assures me she won't, in fact I'm convinced she will, but the difference is I'm her superior, and I can order her not to go, while she has to ask me to do what she wants."  
  
"That is abuse of power," Katie said.  
  
"Maybe, but I'm not letting my wife get in the wolf's cave," he said.  
  
"Interesting choice of words," Katie said and they both broke into a soft laugh. Of course, the wolf matter was nothing to laugh about, Jen's mother had died trying to save a mare from a pack of wolves, and in consequence Jen had a pathological fear of wolves.  
  
"So, you are not letting her go?" Katie asked, while the assistants pushed her out of the room in complete silence.  
  
"Katie, we both know Jennifer," Alex said. "Does it really matter if I let her go or not?"  
  
Katie was taken out of the room which looked more like a giant glass tank than anything else. Trapped inside were Alex, two scientists and four assistants and about a dozen computer consoles and an awful lot of cables, of all colors and sizes; connecting the computers to each other and to Alex. Outside of the tank stood Katie, along with Lucas and Trip, who had had their turn to talk to Alex about the house.  
  
Since Jen had heard Ransik's voice in the attic the previous day, they had presented Alex with the idea of exploring the house to see if Jen was right, and to find more information if she was. But Alex had refused to let them do it the previous day, because when he picked Jen up in her office after welcoming his mother back, it had already been dark.  
  
In the morning Alex agreed for them to go, but he refused forcefully to let Jen go with them. She was a potential victim and he wasn't about to throw her into a trap. In that moment, when Alex was held captive by some research that required his presence, had seemed to be the perfect moment to try to convince him of the opposite.  
  
Suddenly, the glass of the room's wall became dark, and they couldn't see anything from the outside. Inside, Alex looked at the silver device on his left wrist and smiled. He had a sensation of déjà vu, but a good one. He felt the warmth of knowing. A strange happiness built in his heart as he remembered the first time he had been in that room, many years ago.  
  
Back then he was single and dedicated first to his work and then to his personal life. He was alone and he liked it. He had done two or three tests a week for about a month and then he had been given the product of all the hard work.  
  
And that very same day he had met Jennifer and it suddenly hadn't felt that important. All that stuff he had gone through, even days in the hospital suffering from the side effects, was suddenly unimportant, because the only thing that mattered was seeing that smile again. The only important thing were those brown eyes, the only thing he wanted to do was kissing those soft lips.  
  
He suddenly had stopped wanting to be the Red Time Force Ranger, he now wanted to be just Alex (not even Alexander Drake because his last name had a powerful influence in that city) and be her boyfriend. And he had gotten it. All of it, becoming her boyfriend and being just Alex and being the Red Time Force Ranger. He shook his head before he could bring all the memories back. Being defeated by Ransik, losing his powers, and most importantly, losing Jen.  
  
"Colonel," said one of the scientists. "Proceed."  
  
Alex nodded and lifted his left wrist. He pressed two fingers against the big button in the middle of the device and said the words he thought he was never going to say again: "Time for Time Force!"  
  
*********************************  
  
Jen sat in her office. Bored as she was, she was twirling on her secretary chair like a little girl. There was a knock on the door, and she sat straight and turned on her computer.  
  
"Come in!"  
  
It was Major Logan. "Captain," he started. Jen stood up and saluted. "Please sit down," he told her.  
  
She obeyed. "What can I do for you?" she asked, picking up a pencil and playing with it absentmindedly.  
  
The Major's sight fell on it and then he looked up at her, severely. Jen put the pencil back in the holder. "I know you and Colonel Drake were in charge of a case about ten months ago," he started.  
  
Jen took a deep breath. She would have rolled her eyes if she'd have been able to. He was going to ask her if she wanted to get out of the case, because of all the danger she was in, and then he was going to start with a list of reasons why she was the best woman for the job, and then he'd tell her he was glad she was going to take care of it, without even letting her say a word.  
  
"And I know all the danger you are in right now, so if you want to leave this case in the hands of somebody else, then fell free to tell me."  
  
Jen smiled politely. She knew that no matter what she said, she was going to get stuck with this case, so she might as well say she was glad to take care of it before he started enumerating the things that made her perfect for the job. "Don't worry," she said. "I'm willing to carry on with this case, there's a chance The Mistress might be back, and if there is, then I have to get her," she assured him. He looked at her, seeming surprised. Jen could have told him who The Mistress was and why she wanted to get her, but decided good old fashioned pride would do it. "Nobody kidnaps my boyfriend, attacks my friends and shoots me and walks away freely. I'm going to get her," she assured him with a smile. She didn't know if she was proud or ashamed of being such a good half-liar.  
  
"Well, if that's the case," Major Logan said, getting up. "Are you sure this won't be personal? Because if it is, then you can't take care of this case for that reason," he added rather nervously. She was his subordinate, but he tiptoed around her as if she was his superior. It probably had to do with her sleeping with Alex every night.  
  
"Don't worry, Major," she said, smiling. "I assure you my husband won't let me break any rules."  
  
Logan nodded and smiled politely. "If that's so, good luck," he said and saluted. She responded and he left.  
  
"You are dismissed," Jen whispered playfully after him.  
  
Her phone rang and she picked it up. "Scotts Drake." After she had gotten married, and therefore taken Alex's last name, she had started to pick up the phone and say: 'Drake' like a good wife. But she always got the 'Oh, I'm sorry, I was certain I had dialed Captain Scotts's number,' answer, so she added her husband's last name after her own.  
  
"Jen? Hey, you all right?"  
  
"Yes, Alex, I'm still alive," He chuckled at the annoyance of her voice.  
  
"Great! You have any plans for this afternoon?"  
  
"No."  
  
"I'll come pick you up and take you out for lunch, I have great news."  
  
"What news?" she asked, starting to focus on him.  
  
"Hey!" he complained. "No peeking! Don't read my mind; I want this to be a surprise!" Jen was amazed by him. Her powers were so strong that people couldn't feel her when she read their minds, but Alex could feel her, it was a strange link between them and it was useful. That had helped her find him when The Mistress had kidnapped him and many other times after that.  
  
Technically, with the rank he had, Alex should stay in headquarters all the time, sitting behind a desk, having his subordinates do all the dangerous stuff (or having all the fun like he used to say), but he was an adventurer and he liked to go out and capture the mutants himself, which usually led to him getting in a lot of trouble, because he used to forget he was no longer the Red Ranger.  
  
"All right, all right, I'm not reading your mind," she said.  
  
"Promise."  
  
"I promise, I won't."  
  
"Ok, I'll pick you up in twenty minutes," he said.  
  
"I'll be waiting," she said. "I love you."  
  
"Right back at you," he said and hung up. Jen hung up.  
  
There was another knock on the door and she frowned. A lot of activity in the past five minutes, and she had been bored all day long. "Come in," she said. To her surprise, Samantha Drake made her way into her office.  
  
"Good afternoon, Jennifer," she said throwing a quick glance at her watch. Jen did as well; it was twenty-five minutes past noon.  
  
"Mrs. Drake," she said. Since she had called her 'Jennifer' and not 'Captain' she assumed her mother-in-law wanted to keep the conversation personal.  
  
"It's the first time today somebody forgot about my profession," she said. Jen tensed. She was acting way too sweetly, and she didn't want to let her guard down. She reminded herself this was the woman who had kidnapped and killed fourteen children and had shot her. "No need to be so tense, Jennifer," she said noticing her companion's state.  
  
Jen opened her mind. She tried to get into the other woman's mind. But she had some kind of protection and her thoughts bounced back at her like they had when she had tried to find Alex. She knew she could still hear what Mrs. Drake was thinking, but that would have meant she had to stay quiet and pay attention, and that would have given away her intentions.  
  
"What do you want?" she asked rather defiantly going for the old-fashion again.  
  
"I want to get to know you better, since you will be married to my son 'as long as you both shall live', right?" she said.  
  
To be continued. 


	5. chapter 5

Chapter 5  
  
"You did swear that, didn't you?" Samantha said. "That you'd be with him through thick and thin until death do you part?"  
  
"Yes, I did," Jen said, not taking her eyes away from her interlocutor's eyes. "Gladly," she sneered.  
  
"Well, I did too, gladly as well," Samantha said. "When I married Alex's father."  
  
"When you married him or his fortune?"  
  
"Both of them," the other woman said. "So, tell me about your family, the only thing I heard about it was that they are farmers, and that they have been, proudly, for many years."  
  
"The fact we are farmers doesn't make us poor," Jen said bitterly. "Or less. The Scotts farms produce approximately thirty percent of the vegetables, fruits and dairy products consumed in this town."  
  
"Really? I didn't know that."  
  
"You would if you had asked. By the way, I WAS engineered, just like any other kid in this town."  
  
"Interesting. I thought you had a small farm, but apparently there's many of them, they are 'The Scotts Farms-s'" she said, extending the last 's' to make her point."  
  
"My father has two, my uncle has another two and my aunt kept one," Jen explained.  
  
"Your grandparents had five farms?!"  
  
"Three," Jen explained. "My dad bought one and so did my uncle."  
  
"How many farms have been in the family inheritance all these years?"  
  
"Those three were given to my grandfather by his father, but since he had two siblings, there have been more."  
  
"Curious," Samantha said unenthusiastically. "For how long have your family been farmers then?"  
  
"The Scotts have been farmers for five hundred years," Jen said. "But before them, there were several other families. In the beginning we thought the Scotts had bought the farms from them, but then, we realized Scotts was the last name of one of the husbands of a woman who inherited only part of the farms. In nine hundred fifty years of known history, the number of farms has been changed, because children with different last names get them, and they were given away to pay a debt once," Jen explained. She didn't know what her mother-in-law's sudden interest in her family was, but a small part of her heart, and a bit of her mind, hidden in the back, still wanted that woman to like her, and Jen was proud of her family history, as incomplete as it was.  
  
"Nine hundred fifty years of known history?" Samantha asked. Jennifer's knowledge of her family didn't go far back enough for her plans.  
  
"Yes, no matter how much we have investigated, we can't find any more information about our family. There's even a gap in the genealogical tree, we have no idea of anything that happened before the year 2054."  
  
"Well, that's a shame," The other woman said, this time meaningfully. "You said you were engineered, by whom, if I may ask?"  
  
"He's already dead," Jen said.  
  
"Oh," the other woman pouted. "Did he work in town?"  
  
"He worked for your husband's laboratories, what are they called again?"  
  
"Bio-Lab," Samantha Drake answered. Jen gasped.  
  
"Still?"  
  
"No, not still," she said. "The name was changed several times, but my husband changed it back to its original name. You know his great admiration for Wesley Collins."  
  
Jen did, all right. The man had invited her and the other Rangers over for dinner to ask them about Wes. He said that little was known about Wes's youth, his years before he became president of Bio-Lab, and that it was suspected he had a secret life. They all assumed it was the Red Ranger thing, and told him so. Mr. Drake was fascinated about Wes, and couldn't understand his son's feelings towards such a hero.  
  
Alex had a very different attitude towards Wes. Before the whole back in time incident, Alex used to say he'd like to meet Wesley Collins and see how much they were truly alike. He didn't see himself as a genetically engineered person, but as a clone. His father told him he wasn't a clone, but Alex had never believed himself to be a true person. After he met Wes, Alex said everything was better when Wesley Collins was only this guy who had died hundreds of years ago and he could think they probably had a lot of things in common, instead of knowing they didn't.  
  
Jen thought he and Wes had a lot of things in common, mostly good ones, they didn't share too many defects, but she kept her mouth shut. Alex was very flammable when it came to talking about Wes and at least, now he saw himself as a real person, not as Wes's clone anymore.  
  
The door opened and Alex walked in, his face dead serious. The door was made of glass so he could see his mother from outside and half-expected Jen to be dead. "Mom, what are you doing here?" he asked. "You should be resting," he said, throwing a quick glance over his shoulder, looking for eavesdroppers.  
  
"I came to talk to Jen about her family," Samantha said. "We were going to talk about her genetic composition, and you arrived."  
  
"Why do you want to know about her genetic composition?" he asked. "What do you want to know about it?"  
  
"The usual, Alexander," his mother said, brushing off her son with an elegant hand. "Who did it, what did they do to her."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because I want to get to know your wife better!" she said, smiling brightly and pointing at Jen.  
  
Jen looked at Alex, and he returned the amazed, disbelieving look. "I repeat my question, why?"  
  
"Your father talked to me yesterday, he convinced me Jen is a good girl and that you love her. Look, both of you," she started getting up from her chair and walking towards her son, taking his hand. "I am sorry for the incident ten months ago. I was.crazed, I guess. But these last months have made me reconsider everything. Especially after Nadira betrayed me."  
  
"Nadira what?" Jen asked. She never thought Nadira was the betraying kind.  
  
"She betrayed me, why do you think I haven't been around for so long? Nadira had kidnapped me," she said. Then she lowered her head and shook it, putting a hand up to her mouth, and began to sob softly. "I had a vision, of a world where humans and mutants didn't fight, didn't hate each other. A world where mutants were dignified, useful members of society. But I failed in my methods many years ago, and ten months ago, I was looking for revenge on those who pointed out to me my methods were wrong, when I should have thanked them all," she said, between sobs. Alex and Jen looked at each, their eyebrows furrowed. "I promise you both, The Mistress is gone, forever," she said. Jen looked at the woman silently, but her thoughts kept coming back at her, unaccompanied. This woman had some kind of protection against her powers, and Jen wished she knew how to get around it.  
  
"What do you mean, Nadira betrayed you?" Alex asked.  
  
"She betrayed me when she discovered her true powers and their magnificence; she turned on me and held me prisoner. Until one day, not too long ago, when I escaped. It took me five days to get back to town," she explained, still sobbing. Then she dried her tears with a handkerchief and said: "Well, I'd better go. I'm sure you two have plans. Goodbye, Jennifer, once again I'm sorry."  
  
Jen nodded politely. "Don't worry," she said, even if she still felt that burning hate wrapped around her heart when it came to that woman.  
  
"Alexander," she said softly, and kissed her son's cheek. Alex kissed her back coldly, and stepped out of her way. She left.  
  
Alex walked to Jen and she looked at him, not knowing if she should laugh or just smile, But he was very serious.  
  
"Why didn't you page me the moment she walked in this room?" he asked her angrily.  
  
"Don't give me sermons, I can protect myself from her, besides, we are in God damned Time Force headquarters, she is not stupid enough to kill me here, Alex," Jen answered. She walked to him and he wrapped his arms around her tightly. She did the same with him; she had to admit she had been scared when she was alone with his mother. She found she felt safe and relieved in his arms.  
  
"Did she touch you? Did you let her out of your sight at any moment?"  
  
"No," she assured him. He was running his hands down her arms and back, looking for anything Samantha might have left on her. "I love you," she said softly, hugging him again and taking in his aroma. "I tell you, Alex, you have nothing to worry about! I just want to go out there and do my thing!"  
  
He let go of her and looked her in the eye. "We have a problem with that, Jen. If we believe her, which I don't, Nadira is free and angry. You have gone after both her mother and her father, so she might want to come after you if she's looking for her first reason to be evil and destructive. If we assume she's lying, then you are a potential victim still, due to all the things we both know better than anybody."  
  
"Alex," Jen pouted. "I can't just.lie around doing nothing. If she's coming after me, let her! I'm ready for her. And for others worse than her!" she told him. "I know you just want to protect me, but trust me, baby, I can protect myself. I can fight, I don't need to hide."  
  
"True," he admitted. He didn't like the idea of her running around targeted, but he could bear with it now that he could go on the battlefield with her. "Okay, let's go out for lunch and then to that house, where you say you heard Ransik. We'll check it out," he told her. Her eyes shone at the prospect of action.  
  
"We'll check it out? Really?" she asked excitedly. Then her face went dark. "What do you mean we'll check it out? You can't come, you are unauthorized," she said.  
  
"Unauthorized by whom?"  
  
"By me, and your lack of powers," she answered. "You keep forgetting you are not the Red Ranger anymore."  
  
"I remember I'm not the Red Ranger anymore," he said with a smile on his lips.  
  
"You know something you are not telling me," she said. He smiled playfully.  
  
"I do."  
  
"What is it?" she said urgently.  
  
He raised his left arm and let her take a look at his brand new morpher. "I'm the Black Time Force Ranger," he told her happily.  
  
She jumped into his arms and kissed him deeply. She was so happy for him; she knew it meant the world to him, having his powers back. "Welcome to the team," she said, rubbing her nose against his.  
  
"Thanks a lot," he answered kissing the tip of her nose. He let go and, as she picked up her coat, he added, "By the way, I'm in charge now."  
  
She looked at him raising an eyebrow. "You wish," she told him heading to the door.  
  
*************************  
  
He took several deep breaths and tried to cut through the darkness that engulfed him. "Nadira?" he called. He was in pain, and hungry. He was cold and confused, just like in the beginning.  
  
He heard a noise, and spun as much as his cuffs let him. "Nadira?" he asked again. "Yes, Daddy, it's me," she said, touching his arm. She had a syringe in her hand. "Now, don't move. I've got to get you ready for tonight."  
  
To be continued. 


	6. chapter 6

Chapter 6  
  
Jessica coughed even louder. The mask that covered her mouth and nose was trying hard to fill her lungs with air, but with little success.  
  
Wes sat next to her, holding her hand. She was asleep, her temperature high and her cough getting worse and worse.  
  
She had been admitted two weeks ago with pneumonia, and while the doctors said the hopes of survival were high back then, two weeks later they weren't so sure. Whatever it was that was causing her pneumonia (It could be many kinds of bacteria) had probably spread throughout her body, seemed now to be infecting her stomach at a tremendous speed.  
  
So, Jessica Collins, who was a very healthy woman three weeks ago, found herself, suddenly, on the verge of death. And her husband, Wesley Collins, found himself again torn between work at Bio-Lab and the hospital room where someone he loved lay waiting for death to claim her. The previous time, it had been his father on the bed, and he had been almost certain (thanks to Alex and the great human relationship courses Time Force gave to their officers in the year 3000) he was going to die.  
  
But now, he was even more scared. He loved his wife deeply, and the idea of losing her so soon seemed unfair, unreal. It felt impossible, and yet probable. And this time he had no idea if she was going to make it or not, if she was ever getting out of that bed, if she was ever going back to help him with Bio-Lab, their child.  
  
She coughed harder and stirred. "Wesley?" she called softly through the mask. He stood up so she could see him next to her.  
  
"I'm right here, honey," he told her, forgetting her great disgust for sweet talk.  
  
"How did." a coughing crisis got her and she shook with the strength of the spasms of her muscles. Wes held her by the shoulders and caressed her hair. She stopped coughing as abruptly as she had started and collapsed back on the bed. "How did the meeting with finances and human resources go?"  
  
Wes couldn't help but chuckle. She was on the verge of death, lying on a bed, barely breathing, unable to eat anything, and she was thinking about the results of a meeting he had had with Human Resources and Finances days ago. Jessica was probably lost in time, due to the fever and the disease, though the meeting had taken place that very morning.  
  
"It went fine, we reached an agreement," he told her, knowing that refusing to answer her questions would only make everything worse.  
  
"What agreement?" she asked, lost. "You were supposed to get an agreement with the Brazilians, not Human Resources." she said, her voice thick and small, as she took deep breaths between words.  
  
"The meeting with the Brazilians was postponed. Human Resources, Finances and I decided we have to let go some people who aren't doing much for the enterprise," he explained to her softly.  
  
"The Silver Guardians?" she asked, opening her bloodshot eyes a little. Her pale face and purplish red rings around her eyes gave her a really sick look. Wes took her hand again.  
  
"Try to rest," he told her, kissing her hand right next to where the intravenous solution was being constantly injected into her body.  
  
"Are we letting the Silver Guardians go?" she asked again, her head falling to one side.  
  
"Yes, The Silver Guardians, and other people," he told her, squeezing her hand. "Jessica, try to rest."  
  
"Okay," she agreed, relaxing against the mattress. "Did the doctors tell you when I can go home?"  
  
Wes looked at her, feeling tears stinging the back of his eyes. She didn't know what day it was, or how badly she was doing, and she seemly had no idea of the danger she was in.  
  
"No, they didn't tell me," he half-lied to her tenderly.  
  
"I hope it doesn't take long," she wished. "I wanted to do some changes to the house decoration." He smiled sadly and caressed her shoulder, she didn't seem to notice. "I hope you don't mind," she added, her eyes closed and her breathing as regular as it got those days.  
  
"No, I don't mind," he told her, wondering if he should let her know how bad she was. He decided against it because it would only make things worse.  
  
He noticed she was retching. He took the mask from her face and helped her on her side, putting the waste basket under her face. She threw up a little liquid, because her stomach had been empty for days, but the retching seemed painful, and it provoked another fit of coughing. The liquid was red. It was blood.  
  
Wes helped Jessica on her back and then turned to get her some water and a paper napkin to clean her mouth. When he came back to her side, he noticed she was crying. "I'm going to die, aren't I?" she asked him as he cleaned her mouth and helped her take a couple of small sips.  
  
"I won't let it happen," he told her. "I have all of Bio-Lab looking for a cure." He put her mask back on her face. Before she could answer, she was asleep again, totally exhausted. Wes walked out of the room and called a nurse with a choked voice. Then he sat next to his wife, held her hand, and broke into silent tears. She was dying so fast, and now she knew she was dying.  
  
**********************************  
  
The Time Force Rangers entered the house that was surrounded by that pretty "do not cross- police line" yellow tape (One thousand years and they still couldn't find a better way to keep people out of crime scenes.) Jen was leading the way, with Alex closely by her side, almost stuck to her. She stopped halfway up the stairs and the others copied her moves, completely silent.  
  
"Do you hear him?" Alex asked after a couple of minutes.  
  
"He's not in the attic like the last time," she told them.  
  
"He's somewhere in the house?" Katie asked, scared, looking around her compulsively. Jen didn't understand what the use of that was; Ransik wasn't exactly something you missed when you looked around a room.  
  
"I can't tell," Jen told them worriedly. "I can't hear his thoughts anywhere."  
  
"Then, we should leave," Alex suggested, starting down the stairs.  
  
"Alex, wait!" Jen called after him. "Let me try a little harder."  
  
He climbed back up. Jen took a deep breath, and was getting ready to find some thoughts, even trapped ones, when Alex's communicator beeped. He raised his arm and pressed the button.  
  
"Drake," he barked. Logan was the image that appeared over his left wrist.  
  
"Colonel, this is Major Logan," he said and saluted. "The headquarters are under attack, we need the Power Rangers team now. We have all the available men trying to stop the invasion and rescuing the important equipment, but they are commanded by an old friend of yours."  
  
"Who is it?" Alex asked.  
  
"Ransik," said both, Logan and Jen as one.  
  
"We're on our way," Alex said and closed the communication. "Why Ransik and not Nadira?" he asked Jen.  
  
"Take me to him, and I'll find out," she told him and they both ran downstairs followed by the others.  
  
"What's Nadira got to do with all of this?" Lucas asked.  
  
"She supposedly betrayed The Mistress," Jen said.  
  
"Says who?" Lucas asked angrily.  
  
"The Mistress," Jen answered, shrugging.  
  
They ran outside and mounted their vector-cycles. As they rode through town, Jen could pick up Lucas' thoughts, and they weren't happy.  
  
************************  
  
Samantha Drake finished getting everything she needed into her ship. Her new mutant assistants helped her with the bigger boxes and everything else. She carried in her hands a very small crystal sphere, filled with a red powder. If everything went fine, she would get rid of that farm girl and all her family of farmers in two hours time.  
  
She fastened her seatbelt and started the engine. Somewhere, a computerized voice called: "Authorized time ship departure on gate 9 in 20, 19, 18, 17, 16."  
  
*************************  
  
Circuit was connected to the Time Force system, trying to help with the data rescue. He perceived a Time Ship leaving to the year 2004 during the crisis. He investigated further, as he was programmed to do with everything that seemed slightly out of the ordinary, and discovered the ship had been authorized to Samantha Drake a.k.a. The Mistress.  
  
To be continued. 


	7. chapter 7

Chapter 7  
  
Time Force Headquarters were under attack indeed. The once elegant and imposing white building now showed not-so-proudly a number of holes burnt through its walls, and an equal number of fires were lit inside.  
  
Time Force officers, in patrols, on motorcycles or on their feet, ran from the building which was being evacuated. Three teams were trying to stop the menace.  
  
Like Logan said, Ransik was there. But, since she had never been exactly problematic, Logan hadn't mentioned Nadira was by her father's side, and also, Jen's heart stopped for a second when she saw it; they were accompanied by what looked like the deluxe edition of Steelix, all made of gold.  
  
"Is that Steelix?" Alex asked, parking his bike right across Jen's way, forcing her to stop at a considerable distance from the building.  
  
"No, it's not," Jen said angrily, coming to a stop as well. "Steelix was all silver, that guy is golden." She tried to go around Alex and walk towards the building, but he held her by the waist.  
  
"Where the hell are you going?" he asked her, pushing her back towards her cycle.  
  
"To do MY JOB!!" she yelled angrily. "Now, get out of my way," she told him.  
  
"Jen, wait, we need a plan, if this guy has any relation to Steelix, then this is way too dangerous for you," Alex told her, grasping her by the shoulders.  
  
Angrily she shook him off, why was he treating her like a baby girl?  
  
"I'm trying to protect you!" He told her, beginning to get a little angry himself. Apparently, she had sent the thought via telepathy.  
  
"I don't need your protection!" she yelled at him. "Alex, I mean it, get out of my way," she repeated.  
  
"Guys!" Lucas called for their attention. "Would you keep the marital discussions for home? Right now, Ransik and this Steelix wannabe are attacking our co-workers."  
  
Jen and Alex both looked at him and then at the building that was under attack. "Alex," Jen said. "Please." Her voice was pleading, like it had been years ago when she had asked him to give Wesley his morpher back.  
  
He took a deep breath and looked away from her. "All right, but be careful!"  
  
************************  
  
Jessica moved abruptly. Wes was still sitting next to her bed, reading some finance reports, judging by the blue paper they were printed on. On his lap laid a Human Resources report, printed on pink paper, and under that one, a Silver Guardians report, printed on gray paper. She moved abruptly again, and this time her husband noticed her movements.  
  
"Jess? Do you need anything?" he asked her, but she seemed to be still asleep. "Jessica? You awake?" he asked softly.  
  
Jessica opened her eyes and looked at him. She didn't want him to go, but she didn't want him to see her like this either, crying. "I'm having more problems breathing," she told him. It wasn't a lie, it was getting harder for her to breathe, and it would give her some time.  
  
"Want me to call the doctor?" he asked standing next to her, caressing her arm.  
  
"Please," she said. He nodded and left. Jessica took a breath as deep as she could and felt tears sliding down her cheeks.  
  
The dreams were back. It had been a while since she had last dreamed about her father, about her childhood. About Phine, a nasty little voice in her head said.  
  
"Phine," she whispered to the air. "I miss you so much."  
  
"Who's Phine?" Wes asked, suddenly appearing next to her. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"  
  
"I want to go back to work," she said. "I'm tired of lying in bed." She was more scared of inactivity that anything else, because it gave her time to think, time to see inside of herself. And now she was dying, and she noticed, suddenly, as she look into his eyes, how badly she had been treating Wesley, the man she loved more than anyone else.  
  
"You can't go to work yet. The treatment isn't over."  
  
"The treatment is not working at all!" she snapped suddenly, provoking hard, dry coughing and tears. Tears that came due to the pain in her hoarse throat and from her hoarse heart.  
  
"Jessica, it is working," Wes told her, worriedly. "It's just working very slowly, because you kept the disease from me for too long."  
  
"I'm sorry," she told him, sobbing and coughing. Now the cough seemed perpetual, it almost never stopped. Every breath she took was expelled out at a tremendous speed. "I was taught to never bother my husband about anything."  
  
"Who taught you that?" Wes asked. "It's medieval!"  
  
"My mother," Jessica answered. "My parents were kind of 18th century-ish. My dad taught me to only work and never have fun, especially after Phine left."  
  
Wes dragged a chair and sat next to her. "Are you actually opening up to me?" he asked her.  
  
"I'm going to die, what's it going to hurt?"  
  
"You are not going to die."  
  
"Whatever," she said. "Mother and father were never what you could call sweet," she told him with tearful eyes.  
  
Wes looked at her attentively determined to not miss a word. For the following twenty minutes, Jessica told Wes about her childhood. How her parents had been cold to her, how her father had burnt all her drawings, and her art materials, how she had always wanted to be a fashion designer and how her father had forced her to become a businesswoman, how he had kept her in the dark, away from parties, magazines, friends, boyfriends and all. How, while she was very capable in her work, she felt absolutely useless emotionally.  
  
"And I have one last confession to make," she told him, her face washed by her tears. Wes took her hand and kissed her fingers. He was crying himself. He had thought his parents had been bad, but at least, he got to party and play around. "I-I'm a--" Wes never knew. The doctor walked into the room and greeted them.  
  
The doctor held his stethoscope against her chest and her back. He did it repeatedly, as if trying to get a better reading of her lungs. "I want an x- ray of her chest, right now," he told the nurse with him gravely. Wes could see Jessica close her eyes with a painful expression.  
  
"I think she's hurting," he told the doctor. Jessica shook her head no.  
  
"It's the ICU next," she told him with a sad smile.  
  
"The ICU?" Wes asked, looking at the doctor.  
  
"Afraid so. I'm going to put a tube down her throat and connect her to a ventilator to help her breathe. She'll be unconscious for some time now," the man in the white coat explained.  
  
"What did the other doctor say about her stomach?" Wes asked, caressing his wife's hair. She felt for his hand with hers and grasped it tightly. She was shaking with fear.  
  
"It wasn't what we had suspected, fortunately. It was a normal reaction to the stress of the disease. It's normal."  
  
"Are you telling me it's normal my wife is throwing up blood?!" he asked angrily.  
  
"Mr. Collins, please calm down," the doctor asked. "It is a normal reaction to the disease. But I think your wife is indeed suffering from a complication to her disease. I want to get her to the ICU and start using more aggressive antibiotics now, before it's too late." The nurse, who had left the room, returned in the company of two male nurses. They had a stretcher with them, and began to get the tubes off Jessica, so they could move her.  
  
"Please no," she begged with tears in her eyes. "Wesley," she called for her husband.  
  
"You're going to be okay, baby. I'll be with you, I won't leave you alone!"  
  
She kept crying. She didn't care anymore if he saw her crying, if he saw her true self. She was scared and she needed comfort and she wanted to get it from Wesley. "Kiss me," she asked.  
  
Wes looked at her, surprised; she had been so cold to him for so long the only kisses she would take were little pecks on the cheek if he didn't hug her too much. But now she was begging him to kiss her. He approached her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.  
  
"On the lips," she begged. He smiled at her with his most charming smile and approached her face.  
  
"I wouldn't recommend that, Mister Collins," The doctor said.  
  
Wes ignored him, he didn't know how important that moment was for them. He pressed his lips against Jessica's softly. She was a terrible kisser, Wes noticed, not really responding to his kiss, not really knowing what to do, but still, he felt her love, her fear. He felt how she looked for comfort in him and he was happy she finally trusted him. He parted his lips from hers, with his heart strangely light.  
  
"I love you," he told her, as the male nurses moved her from her bed to the stretcher.  
  
"I love you too," she whispered tearfully.  
  
They took her away, and Wes stared after them. Inside of him a debate started. He didn't want to leave her alone, but he didn't want to see her connected to a machine. Her words echoed in his head. I love you too. He followed the medical crew down the alley. He wasn't going to leave his wife alone for a second.  
  
Not now that he knew she loved him.  
  
To be continued. 


	8. chapter 8

Chapter 8  
  
The Mistress landed the time ship smoothly in a secluded area of the beach. Her mutant aides looked at her, waiting for instructions. "You are all to wait here until I come back," she said sharply as she got up from her seat.  
  
"Ma'am, don't we need to get ourselves a base of operations?" one of her mutants asked.  
  
"Not yet. If everything goes as planned, then we won't stay long," she explained. Without one more word, she walked out of the ship and towards the road, through the sand.  
  
****************  
  
The Power Rangers fought with everything they had. They tried to stop the mutants from doing any more damage to Time Force headquarters, but the trio seemed determined to destroy the entire building.  
  
Jen was fighting side by side with Alex against the golden version of Steelix. Jen saw a small tattoo on his leg. It had the same symbol she had seen on Catgat's jacket when he had attacked her inside her mind some time ago. It seemed a much longer time than it truly was.  
  
"Alex!" She called for her husband's attention.  
  
"Yes?" he said.  
  
"This guy, his DNA patch," she pointed out. "It's the symbol on Catgat's jacket!"  
  
"What symbol on which Catgat's jacket? I though he was invisible," Alex commented, firing his blaster at Ransik, who was getting dangerously close to Lucas.  
  
"I saw it in my mind, Alex!" Jen complained. "I think this has got something to do with you-know-who!"  
  
"The Mistress?" Alex asked out loud. Nadira turned sharply to him and shot a blast of energy at him. He landed on his back, gasping for breath. "Guess she did betray her mother, then."  
  
"No," Jen told him kneeling next to him. "This is all a plan. A well rehearsed plan." She was reading Nadira's mind, and she was under someone else's control.  
  
"What do you mean? A plan for what?" he asked her, as Ransik moved closer to Lucas again and managed to grab his throat.  
  
Jen focused on Ransik and parted his fingers from Lucas's neck with her mind. "Lucas, you okay?" she asked.  
  
"Yes, Jen, thanks."  
  
"Alex, this is a distraction," Jen said suddenly. "She had nothing against Time Force, but she wants to keep us busy."  
  
"Busy? Why?"  
  
"I don't know," she admitted.  
  
"I do," said a baby voice in their communicators. It was Circuit. "The Mistress has recently left in a Timeship for the early 21st century!"  
  
"She's going after Wes?" Jen asked.  
  
"I don't know," Circuit answered.  
  
Jen looked at Nadira, who was moving towards her slowly with a malicious smile on her face. "Then," Jen told her team, as she stood facing Nadira and focusing on her. "We'll have to ask someone who does."  
  
**********  
  
Wes snoozed on a chair next to Jessica. She was now unconscious, a machine breathing for her, plastic tubes going in and out from her body to many machines. Her hair was tangled and her face was even paler than usual.  
  
It wouldn't have been easy putting her in the ventilator if she hadn't been so sick and weak. The doctors had put her to sleep, but she kept crying and begging them to stop, begging them to leave her alone, telling them she didn't want to go to the ICU until the very last moment. She hadn't woken up since, and according to the doctors, she wasn't going to, until she was healthy enough again.  
  
The door of the unit opened, but Wes didn't hear it; a woman stepped into the room and walked towards Jessica. She was marveling at how much Jessica looked like Jen, and how much Wes looked like Alex.  
  
"Blond?" she wondered, walking towards Wes, she looked carefully at his hair. "Not naturally," she concluded.  
  
She turned to Jessica. "So defenseless, so small. Poor little thing, you have no idea of what's happening. Well, that's just too bad," she said with a wicked smile, pulling a small crystal sphere from her pocket. "Goodbye, Farm Girl," she said, but not to the woman lying on the bed, but to another, far, far from there. She put the crystal in the unconscious woman's hand, and it started to glow red.  
  
Jessica Collins' eyes snapped open and she looked at the woman standing next to her, her face showing fear and pain only for a second. The next, her cardiac monitor was showing a flat line and her eyes went blank and milky.  
  
She was dead.  
  
Samantha Drake picked up her poisonous crystal ball from the dead woman's hand and walked out of the room, as Wes woke up.  
  
***********************  
  
Nadira struggled against the hands holding her down. Alex and Katie tried to keep her as still as possible. Jen stared into her eyes. She entered Nadira's mind, a dark gloomy place, just like her father's. She found Nadira, who was wearing black instead of white, standing firmly in the middle of the room, looking at her defiantly.  
  
"Where's The Mistress?" Jen asked.  
  
"What if I don't want to tell you?" Nadira shot back.  
  
Jen knew she couldn't do much in Nadira's mind. "Why wouldn't you want to tell me? We are friends," she said.  
  
"Why would I be your friend? You hate both of my parents!"  
  
"Nadira, come on!" Jen said; her voice slightly annoyed. "I don't have much time."  
  
"I have all the time in the world," The pink haired mutant answered.  
  
"Are you really going to force me to do this the hard way? I have your father and that other mutant frozen already."  
  
"Are you going to freeze me?"  
  
"Not before I find out what I need to find out."  
  
"What is that?"  
  
"Where The Mistress is, for example."  
  
"I don't know," Nadira said, her eyes wandering away from Jen.  
  
"I tried to do this the nice way," Jen said, turning to leave.  
  
"And what is the hard way?" Nadira asked after her.  
  
"Did your mother ever tell you anything about protocol fifteen?" Jen asked.  
  
"Yes," Nadira said, her voice trembling.  
  
Protocol fifteen was a protocol Time Force rarely used, for it was cruel and inhuman. However, every now and then, there was a mutant who deserved it, and the officers in charge of the operation were allowed to use it. It involved cruel interrogations in which a series of devices were used, one known as the Mind Scrambler. It was a particularly painful one and its effects were the same as those of the attack perpetrated against Brynn months ago by Catgat.  
  
The principle of protocol fifteen was "the end justifies the means," and if the end was to obtain information on who orchestrated the attack on Time Force headquarters, the means included a high technology version of the Spanish Inquisition.  
  
Jen turned to Nadira. "Alex managed to get us a green light regarding that protocol, meaning, that's the protocol we are using right now with you, your father and your other friend," Jen said cruelly. "The only reason I'm here is because Lucas begged me to try this way first, so, go on, give me a reason to use the Mind Scrambler on you to get the information I need."  
  
Nadira looked at her, swallowing hard. "She's in the year 2004."  
  
"Doing what?" Jen asked.  
  
"Getting rid of Wesley Collins' wife."  
  
"His wife? Why his wife?"  
  
"Because she's your ancestor," Nadira said.  
  
Jen stood there looking at her with her mouth slightly open. Nadira didn't know the implications of what she had just said. If The Mistress was in the year 2004 to kill Wes's wife, not only she was going to disappear. So was Alex.  
  
Jen left Nadira's mind in a hurry and the moment she got back to her own body she hugged her husband and kissed him deeply. "Have I ever told you how much I love you?" she whispered.  
  
"Jennifer, what's going on?" he asked, his voice shaking.  
  
"She's in the past. And she's going to destroy us both," she told him.  
  
"Us both? How can she do that?"  
  
"Killing Wes's wife," she told him. "My ancestor."  
  
In that moment, they all felt a rush, as if they had been standing in the way of a tsunami. When the dizziness was gone and she opened her eyes, Alex lay on the ground, his eyes staring, looking at Jen. As she knelt next to him and closed his eyes, kissing his forehead, a tear slipped from her eyes. His body had disappeared before the tear fell on it.  
  
"Now what?" Lucas asked.  
  
"Why are you still here?" Katie asked Jen.  
  
But she wasn't listening. Her gaze was lost, her pain too big for tears. "We are going to the past," she murmured. "To the moment before she gets there, and we are going to stop her."  
  
"What are we going to do about them?" Katie asked, pointing at Ransik, the golden Steelix and Nadira, who was the only one still unfrozen.  
  
Jen got to her feet and turned to Nadira. The pink haired mutant looked at her apprehensively. "Why are you so scared?" Jen asked. Nadira didn't answer. Jen moved closer to her and put both hands on the sides of her temples.  
  
"Please no, please, please no," Nadira begged.  
  
"Give me one good reason not to do it," Jen said. Nadira whimpered incoherently. "Wrong answer," Jen said, and closed her eyes.  
  
Nadira yelled in pain as Jen scrambled her mind, shaking her every thought, messing with her brain, burning her consciousness, removing her identity from her, taking from her everything that was precious, that was important. Nadira yelled at the top of her lungs and Lucas jumped forward to try to stop Jen.  
  
He was repelled backwards as if a protective shield covered the two women. Jen opened her eyes and removed her hands from Nadira's temple. The mutant fell limply to her side.  
  
"You killed her!" Lucas called, kneeling next to Nadira, lifting her head into his lap. "She's dead!" he yelled at Jen.  
  
Jen pulled out her blaster and shot Nadira in the chest and the head, right in front of Lucas' eyes. "She is now," Jen said tonelessly and walked towards the Vector cycles.  
  
To Be Continued. 


	9. chapter 9

AN: In this chapter, I have decided to show a bit more of the darker side for Jen I created when she stomped out of the hospital in "Let Me Sleep". This may be quite a shock, but it'll be ok.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------  
  
Chapter 9  
  
"Jen, wait a second," Lucas called angrily after her. Jen stopped, but didn't turn. "What did you do to her?" he asked.  
  
"What I had to," Jen said simply, her voice still toneless. Her attitude reminded the three officers of the one she had shown when she left the hospital months ago, leaving a mess behind her, including the first black- out the city had had in twenty-five years.  
  
"What was that? Why did you do it?" he pressed.  
  
"I took all of her memories. Because I needed the information she has," Jen said.  
  
"Why did you kill her?" Lucas asked then, his voice sounded shaky and broken.  
  
"For revenge," was the flat and toneless answer he got. Jen kept walking.  
  
"Revenge against whom?"  
  
"Against the woman who killed my husband," Jen said, as she mounted her vector cycle.  
  
"Why didn't you kill Ransik then?!" Lucas asked, standing in front of her cycle defiantly.  
  
"Because he wasn't handy," she snapped. "She was there, Ransik was already frozen."  
  
"You killed her randomly?"  
  
"Yes," Jen admitted. Lucas approached her and before she could stop him, he had crossed her face with a slap.  
  
"WOULD YOU COME BACK TO YOUR SENSES?!" he bellowed.  
  
"If I do, will you come back to yours?" She asked, not even remotely shaken by his anger.  
  
"You are a murderer," he told her, looking her in the eye. "You killed her in cold blood, while she begged for mercy," he reminded her.  
  
Jen was returning Lucas' gaze. Allow me to remind you of something, Lucas, she told him telepathically, as she sent to his mind the memory of all of them lying on the floor, and Nadira shooting a blast of energy at them, aiming to kill. In cold blood. Then another one, something Lucas hadn't seen, but she had. Nadira, burying her long, sword-like nails into one of the Time Force officer's abdomen. Then, sliding them across the throat of another.  
  
Nadira was a damned mutant, Lucas. She was no sweet girl. She came here, and started killing all these people mercilessly, just as much in cold blood as I killed her, Jen told him.  
  
"You said yourself she was under someone else's control," Lucas told her.  
  
"Yes, she was under her true self's control. This Nadira, the one who murdered innocent officers, many of who graduated with us, is the REAL Nadira, the Nadira The Mistress promised to set free ten months ago. Nadira was, in her real, true self, ten times worse than her father. I wasn't going to freeze her because she is as guilty of Alex's death as her mother is and her father once was!" Jen explained, the first tears finally finding their way out of her eyes. She dried them off quickly and angrily. "I didn't want to freeze her! I didn't want, and I still don't want to give her, or any of her parents, the right to a trial or the right to live! Her mother and her father both killed, in turn, the man I love! And I wanted to hurt them both, it was MY turn to do the hurting, and the law entitled me to do it!!" She was crying even more tears now.  
  
"You had to know how I felt about her," Lucas whispered.  
  
"I do," Jen said. "And I don't care. I don't see any of you crying because my husband is dead. I don't see any of you crying because Wes's wife is dead. I see you all crying for a MUTANT!!"  
  
"So now you're a racist?" Lucas asked her. Katie and Trip remained away from the discussion, mounted on their vector cycles.  
  
"I have always been a racist," Jen admitted. "I, like everyone who has been through Time Force training, hate mutants for what they are, not for what they do. And some mutants don't deserve my hate, I admit that much. But Nadira or Ransik or any of the mutants I killed that night ten months ago, they didn't belong to that group, Lucas. They deserved what they got, and there is no way to correct what I did to Nadira, Lucas, because you can't correct what isn't wrong."  
  
Lucas just looked at her face, his own eyes tearful. "If that's how you plan to conduct this mission, Jen, with hate and desire for revenge, then I'm not going," he said.  
  
"I can force you to come. But I won't," she told him. "I will just ask you to get out of my way."  
  
Lucas stood where he was. "I have to put you under arrest for murder."  
  
"I committed no crime, Lucas; we are operating in protocol fifteen. Mutant deaths are collateral damage, and they aren't considered crimes," Jen explained, her voice was calm and peaceful again.  
  
"That is inhuman."  
  
"It has to be, because mutants are not human, Lucas. They are monsters, most of them on both the inside and the outside, some of them only on the inside, like Nadira." Jen looked deeply into Lucas' eyes. Get out of my way. I don't have much time and I have to set everything back to normal, she ordered.  
  
Lucas felt himself moving to one side and saw her cycle speed towards the hangars. He turned to Katie and Trip. "Are you two going with her?" he asked.  
  
"We have to, she needs us," Katie told him.  
  
"Not anymore. This isn't like the last time. Jen is no longer a new officer, she is no longer naïve. She is experienced, and powerful. You can't mix experience and power with anger, it turns out wrong," Lucas told them both.  
  
"That's what she needs us for. If she is going to save Wes's wife, we have to give her a bit of sanity to hang on to, or she will do this more and more often, and end up being a mutant slayer. We have to be there to create a line of security, to guard that line she can't cross," Trip said sadly.  
  
"There is no line she can't cross anymore. She just killed a mutant."  
  
"She still had a reason," Katie told him. "Not a very good one," she added when Lucas glared at her and opened his mouth. "But she had a reason. There is one more line we have to keep her from."  
  
"What is that line?" Lucas asked.  
  
"We have to keep her from doing it for pleasure," Katie explained to him and started her cycle, speeding after Jen.  
  
"Jen was right when she let you choose if you are coming or not, Lucas," Trip said. "But as you think about this, I recommend you remember Ransik killed Alex four years ago. And yet Alex was very much alive when he married Jen eight months ago."  
  
With that, Trip also sped after the women. Lucas stood there and turned towards his cycle, parked nearby. It had been parked next to the black one that had belonged to Alex, but with him gone, so were his new powers and everything they brought with them.  
  
Changing history, Lucas thought.  
  
That's what we are up to, my friend. He heard Jen's voice answer him, in his mind.  
  
*****************************  
  
Samantha Drake walked out of the hospital fighting the sea of doctors hurrying to get to the room she had just left. She had turned only for a moment to look at Wesley and had seen him crying desperately as the nurse got him out of the room. He had knelt in the middle of the corridor and was crying hard.  
  
She wondered for a second if that was what Alexander was going through in the future. She tried to shake the thought out of her head, but she couldn't.  
  
She kept walking and when she was getting on the elevator, lost as she was in her musings about having done the right thing or not.  
  
To be continued. 


	10. chapter 10

Chapter 10  
  
Jen entered a Time ship and started the motors. Katie and Trip came after her and sat down. "Are you going to drive this thing?" Katie asked.  
  
"No," Jen said softly. "Lucas will."  
  
"Are you going to control his mind?"  
  
"There will be no need for that," Jen answered looking towards the ship's still open door.  
  
The blue vector cycle was pulling over by it and Lucas got off and walked towards the ship, a container for a frozen mutant in each of his hands. He walked inside the ship and put both containers in front of Jen, with their small crystal windows facing her.  
  
Jen looked at the containers. One held Ransik, and the other Nadira's shrunken body. Lucas said nothing as he sat down and grasped the controls. Jen followed his example as she adjusted her seat belt.  
  
"I've set the time target to four hours before The Mistress landed. That way you'll have four hours to come up with a plan of how to save Jessica," Circuit informed them.  
  
"Who is Jessica?" Jen asked.  
  
"Wes's wife," the owl said. "Under your seats you'll find a small present from Major Logan," he continued. The officers searched under their seats and found small boxes under them. Jen opened hers and took out the long black glove inside.  
  
"What are these?" Trip asked.  
  
"Time Force's state-of-the-art officer gloves. They have several buttons on them, and each button pressed will generate a different tool. They are to substitute for your belts," Circuit informed them.  
  
Jen put hers on, and pressed a button on top of her wrist that had a small light on it. As she did, a flashlight appeared in her hand. She turned the flashlight on and off again. "How do I put it back?" she asked.  
  
"Press the same button again," Circuit told her. She did it and the flashlight dissolved.  
  
"These are great!" Katie said, pulling hers up over her elbow.  
  
"Circuit, get us to the year 2004," Jen ordered. Circuit blinked slowly, his way of nodding.  
  
"By the way, Jen," Trip said suddenly. "I have a present for you and Alex." He added the last bit awkwardly. "It was supposed to be for Christmas, but the occasion seems better now." He put his hand on the bag where he usually kept Circuit, and extracted a small white mouse. He put it on the Time ship's table in front of Jen.  
  
The mouse stirred and opened his eyes. He stood on his rear legs and opened his mouth. "Jen!" he called out as if he knew her all of her life. "It's good to see you, what can I do for you today?" Jen looked at Trip amazed, the mouse seemed so real and natural, and yet he was talking.  
  
"It's a version of Circuit, but in nano-size. He can do all the things that Circuit can do, plus he can control your weapons and suit independently of you, so he can protect you. His name is Tao and he's yours." Jen picked the small mouse up from the table and it caressed her hand softly with its head. "He's also supposed to receive and give you messages he receives from Buda, the one I made for Alex," he explained.  
  
"Do you have Buda with you?" she asked; her eyes full of tears suddenly.  
  
"Yes. I'll give it to Alex the moment we see him again," he promised. She smiled sadly.  
  
"Well, sorry to ruin the party," Lucas announced. "But our time hole is open, we have to go."  
  
The ship took off, and in less than a minute after that, they were spinning fast, pressed against their seats by the force of it, as they traveled back to a time where, unknown to them, they were no longer welcome.  
  
*****************************  
  
"Wes," Eric called softly as he sat down next to his best friend. "You want me to help you with the funeral arrangements?"  
  
"Not yet," Wes answered sadly.  
  
"Wes, I'm not going to sit here and pretend to remind you how nice and good Jessica was, okay? I hated her as much as you loved her," he told him. "But at least I'll admit you loved her for who she was--"  
  
"Is," Wes interrupted him. "I love her for who she is."  
  
"Wes, Jessica is dead," Eric said matter-of-factly. Wes roared and grabbed him by the neck, pinning him to the wall.  
  
"What the fuck are you doing here?! You hated her! There wasn't one single day you didn't call her a 'corporate bitch'! Get the fuck out of here! Leave me alone!" he yelled in Eric's face and shoved his friend away from him.  
  
He didn't understand. Nobody understood what was wrong, what he was going through. Jessica had been perfectly healthy three weeks ago, perfectly healthy! And now she was dead. She had died suddenly and unexpectedly, and what hurt Wes the most was that her last words, to him, had been 'I love you too'. That 'I love you' he had expected for so long, almost as long as he had expected Jen's. But Jessica's I love you meant so much more than any other word from any other woman! It seemed so unfair that right when she seemed willing to love him, to let go, to free herself from her parents' incarceration, when she seemed willing to finally be truly happy, she had to die.  
  
"I want to see her," he asked the nurse that had walked to him after the incident with Eric.  
  
"I'm sorry, Mister Collins, that's impossible, the autopsy is being performed on her right now."  
  
"Autopsy?!" Wes asked. "Who gave authorization to perform an autopsy?"  
  
"She died of a disease, Mr. Collins. The autopsy is mandatory," the nurse explained.  
  
"I want to see my wife," Wes demanded.  
  
"Your wife's body is the only thing I can offer you, Mister Collins," the nurse said. "Her body will be released to you when the autopsy is completed."  
  
"Make it fast," Wes pleaded.  
  
"We will," the nurse told him.  
  
In that moment Wes felt dizzy as if he had been caught in a rush of air. He closed his eyes, and felt himself spinning fast. He opened his eyes and saw himself sitting next to Jessica's bed in the ICU.  
  
Jessica's eyes were open, and her face looked a lot healthier than it had looked when he had fallen asleep.  
  
She took the hand he offered with a strong grip and he smiled. She smiled at him with her eyes that shone with love and happiness.  
  
"I'll go and call a nurse to get you off that ventilator," he said. He walked out of the room and towards the nurse desk.  
  
"Can I do anything for you, Mr. Collins?" The big black nurse behind the desk asked, smiling.  
  
"It's a miracle," He said simply. "She's cured," he said. The nurse looked at him with an amazed expression in her face.  
  
To be continued.. 


	11. chapter 11

AN: This chapter is what happened in chapter ten, from the Time Force officers' point of view. I'd like to explain that, technically, The Mistress' time travel, despite the fact it occurred before the Rangers', actually happened after, because the others landed four hours before she did. So, all of this is happening while The Mistress is preparing to travel. Hope it makes sense. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------  
  
Chapter 11  
  
The yellow time ship landed on the beach where it had landed so many times before. However, its occupants didn't get out.  
  
"What's the plan?" Katie asked. Jen swallowed hard.  
  
"I don't have one," she said. "I don't even know how The Mistress is going to kill her."  
  
"Perhaps we could go and warn Wes," Trip suggested. Jen shook her head.  
  
"No, it wouldn't do any good," she told them.  
  
"Why not? I'm sure Wes would believe us," Katie commented.  
  
"Let me focus on Wes for a moment, to get an idea of the situation," Jen told them.  
  
"You don't even know where he is," Lucas complained.  
  
"I'll scan the city."  
  
"It'll take you ages."  
  
"I dare you to find him faster than me," Jen snapped, throwing an angry stare at Lucas, who returned it. Obviously, as her body was there to prove, the argument about Nadira was still fresh in their hearts, and neither of them was changing his or her mind. Lucas didn't answer, so Jen closed her eyes, taking deep breaths.  
  
Her mind traveled through the city, directly to the Collins' estate. She could see it in her mind, not that different from the image she had of it, when she had left for the future three years ago. Only something had changed, Mr. Collins' presence was gone, and the presence of a woman was very strong, almost touchable.  
  
Pictures on a small table showed Mr. Collins with his son, and the current Mr. Collins, Wes, next to his wife, who Jen though, rather sardonically, was a very beautiful woman. She had red hair, blue eyes and beautiful features, drawn, strangely, by hard lines that made her look stern and unhappy. Her body was perfect though, wasp waist well sized and shapely breasts. Jen thought they looked alike, but, just like Alex and Wes, they were very different at the same time.  
  
She continued her mental walk around the house and found Philips the butler, sitting with the chef, she hadn't ever had the pleasure of meeting him, and two maids, one old and one younger, who was her daughter.  
  
She approached Philips and put her hand near his temple. Where's Wes, Philips? She asked him.  
  
The butler looked concerned. Master Wes is in the hospital, with the mistress, the old butler answered.  
  
The Mistress?! Jen asked herself for a second. What was Wes doing in the hospital with--? She chuckled. Of course, the butler hadn't meant The Mistress, but Wes's wife; he had also called Wes 'master'.  
  
What hospital are they in? She asked the butler, who unaware of her presence in his mind, kept chatting with the other members of the manor's staff.  
  
Silver Hills General. She's in the ICU last thing I heard, the butler answered.  
  
Thank you, Phillips, Jen answered.  
  
She went back to her body and opened her eyes. Lucas was running a scanner on the city. She smirked and looked significantly at Katie and Trip, both of them trying to hide their smiles.  
  
"Did you find him yet?" Jen asked Lucas, who, startled, jumped slightly in his seat.  
  
"Not yet," he said sourly.  
  
"Try the general hospital, in the ICU unit to be exact," she told him.  
  
He did, the scanner showed a red spot where Wes was. "How did you do it?"  
  
"Instead of scanning the whole city, I went to the manor, and asked Phillips, he was bound to know," she explained.  
  
"That's cheating!" the blue Ranger complained playfully.  
  
"Hey, you use your resources, and I'll use mine," she answered in the same tone. "This is what we'll do. Trip and I will stay here, put a shield on the ship, and keep our eyes open for The Mistress. Lucas and Katie, you have to go to the hospital, and use the unprogrammed nano-machine treatment we have in our first aid kit on Wes's wife." All three officers nodded. "You both have to keep an eye on Wes and his wife, but don't talk to him, unless he discovers you."  
  
"Why is it you don't want us to talk to him?"  
  
"Extra interference might change things more than we need to," she explained. "Please stick to the plan," she pleaded. They both nodded and Lucas got up to look for the first aid kit.  
  
"Tao, Circuit, please, start the scanners, set the shield and prepare all the weapons," Trip ordered.  
  
"In a second," the owl answered.  
  
"In a nano-second," said the mouse in a challenging tone.  
  
Jen and Trip shot each other a significant look and forgetting about their problems for a second, snorted loudly and broke into a laugh.  
  
***********************  
  
Wes was asleep on the chair next to the bed when she entered the room.  
  
Katie had taken a robe from a doctor and put it on, hiding the plastic box that contained the unprogrammed nano-machine crystal in her pocket. She had walked naturally around the hospital, and had followed the signs directly to the ICU. Lucas had stayed in the lobby, in case there was trouble, although they didn't expect The Mistress to arrive in the past for another two hours.  
  
Katie tiptoed into the room, trying hard not to wake Wes up. She pulled the plastic box out of her pocket, and turned it upside down over Jessica's hand, so the small crystal ball fell into her open, upturned hand.  
  
It began to immediately shine blue and spark white, and Katie let it work for about twenty seconds, she didn't want Jessica perfectly healthy overnight, only out of immediate danger.  
  
However, she did let it act too much, after all. Jessica stirred and Katie took the crystal ball from her hand before she opened her eyes. She hid the futuristic device and sneaked out of the room in the moment Jessica opened her eyes, in time to get a quick glance of her.  
  
Katie stayed around the floor, and saw Wes coming out of the room and talking to the nurse who followed him into the room. She activated her communicator. "It's done," she said simply.  
  
"Great," Jen answered, her holographic image shining at her from her wrist.  
  
**********************************************************  
  
"Time line change should be reaching us any time now," Trip told her. Jen nodded. "But, due to our powers, we are bound to remember this one," he added.  
  
In that moment, the wave of temporal change caught up with them, and they both closed their eyes. When the sensation stopped, Jen kept her eyes closed, wishing silently it had worked. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and lips on her cheek.  
  
"Jen, honey, are you all right?" she heard an all too familiar voice ask her.  
  
She opened her eyes, which filled with tears instantly at the sight of her husband's very much alive face. She threw her arms around him and kissed him deeply.  
  
"You all right?" he asked again when they parted.  
  
"I am now," she said with a broken voice, obviously excited. "Oh, Alex, I love you so much," she told him, once again wrapping her arms around him.  
  
He hugged her tightly, looking around at the other officers who looked puzzled, except for Trip, who was smiling. Alex had the feeling he was the only one, besides Jen, who knew what was going on.  
  
To be continued. 


	12. chapter 12

Chapter 12  
  
"So, I died?" Alex asked.  
  
"Again," Jen completed.  
  
She and Trip had just explained to him and the other two officers about the timeline change. She had told Alex about The Mistress erasing him from history and them coming back in time to save Wes' wife before she killed her.  
  
"And exactly how did you save Jessica Collins if The Mistress hasn't attacked her yet?" he asked her.  
  
"Well, she was on the verge of death," Jen started. After finding Wes she had read his mind looking for information about his situation. She had learnt his wife was very sick, with pneumonia. She explained this to Alex.  
  
"What I remember," Alex said, "is that Circuit called us telling us The Mistress was traveling to the past, so we froze Ransik, Nadira and the Golden Steelix and ran into a time ship and followed her."  
  
"That's what we did," Trip assured him.  
  
"Didn't you just say--" Alex began.  
  
"That's what we did in the other timeline. In this one we came to bring The Mistress back to the future, before she does anything, like we did with Ransik."  
  
"All right," Alex said with a resigned voice. "What has she done?"  
  
"Nothing yet, but her time ship landed a few minutes ago on a nearby beach," Trip explained.  
  
"So we are here to stop her from hurting Jessica Collins?" Alex said.  
  
"Yes, because she's your ancestor," Jen said. "Just like Wes."  
  
"Then why does Mom want to kill her? If she's my ancestor, wouldn't it make more sense if she was yours?" Alex asked.  
  
"Well, she doesn't know Jessica is not my ancestor," Jen explained. "Although I can't blame her for the mistake."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Jessica looks like Jen the way you look like Wes," Trip explained. Jen nodded.  
  
"So you have your very own 21st century double? " Alex asked her.  
  
"Yeah," Jen said with a small smile.  
  
Alex let out a heavy breath and rolled his eyes. "This is so complicated!" he complained.  
  
"It is," Katie backed him up. "Weren't we in the hospital with Wes?"  
  
"You and Lucas," Jen said. "But in this Time Line there was nothing wrong in the hospital yet, so you are here with us, where we landed."  
  
"So us being in the hospital was still the other timeline?" Lucas asked.  
  
"Yes, because the timeline changed after your actions," Trip explained.  
  
Alex, Katie and Lucas seemed extremely confused. But their confusion was nothing compared to Trip and Jen's, who remembered both timelines, and felt as if they had been leading a double life. They had tried to make some sense out of it and explain to the others what they remembered.  
  
Alex moved his neck up and down exaggeratedly, trying to release the tension of his cervical vertebrae. He took a deep breath. "However it happened, we are here. And Jessica Collins is still in danger," he said.  
  
"You'd better go to the hospital," Jen said. "They're still there," she told the other three.  
  
"Wait, you mean you're not coming with us?" Katie asked.  
  
"How can we?" Jen asked. "There are reporters outside the hospital, all around it, if they see Alex or me, they'll think we are the Collinses and we won't have a way to explain we're not. You three would go in unnoticed," she explained.  
  
"And what are we supposed to do there?" Lucas demanded.  
  
"You are to reach Wesley and explain to him how his wife got miraculously healed," Alex said. Looking their bewildered expressions he added: "With a new secret experimental treatment Bio-Lab had been testing."  
  
"What treatment?" Trip asked.  
  
"A new drug that leaves no traces," Jen explained. "Don't worry, we will add the FDA file for that drug from here, with the aid of Buda and Tao. Trip, take Circuit with you, I want you to be able to morph and call us for help if anything should happen."  
  
"What drug? What's its name?" Lucas asked.  
  
"I don't think a drug is a good idea," Katie commented.  
  
"And what would be a good idea?" Jen asked.  
  
"If we tell what Bio-Lab truly used," Katie said matter-of-factly. Jen urged her to continue with a gesture. "The nano-machines."  
  
"It's perfect," Trip backed her up. "It won't need an FDA record, because it's not a food, or a drug, it's a machine."  
  
Jen looked at Alex and he nodded. "It makes sense," he commented. "You three will pass as Bio-Lab's scientists."  
  
"What if we can explain to Wes what's going on before we have to explain to someone else and he doesn't get it?" Katie asked.  
  
"I'll take care of that," Jen said, simply winking.  
  
"Then all we have to do is leave now," Lucas said. "We have a long walk from here to the hospital."  
  
"Take the vector cycles!" Alex said, his voice sounding as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.  
  
"People are not used to see vector cycles around here, Alex, we'd have to morph," Lucas explained.  
  
"Then morph," Alex concluded, shrugging.  
  
"And how will we pass as Bio-Lab scientists if we are the Power Rangers?" Lucas demanded.  
  
"It wouldn't be such a bad idea to admit it was the Power Rangers who helped Jessica Collins; everyone knows Wes was the red Ranger," Trip mused.  
  
"Except none other than Mrs. Collins herself, who was in Europe when the whole Ransik thing happened," Jen said.  
  
"You are reading her mind right now?" Alex demanded. She nodded.  
  
"We'll take the vector cycles and demorph away from the hospital, so the walk is shorter," Trip suggested. Alex clapped and pointed at Trip, in a gesture that reminded them way too much of Wes.  
  
"The man's got my point!" he affirmed. Jen looked at the others and they all began to laugh heartily. "What did I say?" Alex asked.  
  
"You sounded just like Wes," Jen explained. Wes had never actually made that move or said those words while they were with him, but the attitude was just too alike, too happy-go-lucky, too carefree rich boy-like. Alex shrugged and focused on the screen Buda had just started in front of him. "Get going," Jen told the others. "Don't take too long."  
  
"Ready?" Lucas asked the other two.  
  
"Ready!"  
  
"Time for Time Force!!"  
  
**************************  
  
Samantha Drake had made her way to the hospital and found it surrounded by reporters. "What's going on here?" she asked aloud, but everybody was too interested in the hospital's door to pay her any attention.  
  
She turned on her heels and began walking back to her ship. If she wanted to get to Jessica Collins (maiden name Smith) she was going to need to get rid of all those reporters. As she was walking back, she saw, in the distance, the yellow, blue and green Time Force Rangers demorphing and heading to the hospital; she hid from them as smoothly as she could and pulled out a communication device.  
  
"Yes, ma'am?" a mutant in the ship asked.  
  
"Catta," she said. "I need you all in the hospital, hurry," she ordered and closed the line. Nice try, Farm Girl, but you are about to get a big, big surprise.  
  
*********************************  
  
The doctors had kept on examining Jessica over and over, trying, as if they needed to, to find something wrong with her. She and Wes were holding hands and staring lovingly into each other's eyes. Wes caressed the back of her hand, his face shining with happiness. She smiled brightly at him, all the tubes and such gone for good.  
  
"I can't believe this," he said.  
  
She beamed. "Me neither. And yet, here I am, healthy, alive and loving you more than ever!" He moved to her and kissed her forehead.  
  
"Are you admitting you didn't love me before?" he asked playfully.  
  
"NO!" she answered in the same playful mood, letting go of his hand. "I'm just saying that now I'm more willing to-- to show you my love, more than I was before."  
  
Wes laughed softly at her obvious embarrassment. "So, Mrs. Collins can't love?"  
  
"I CAN love, I can't show my love, there's a difference," she said defensively.  
  
He pulled her into a tight hug and looked her in the eye. "Then we'll have to do something about that, won't we?" he whispered and he leaned in to kiss her. Once again she didn't response to his kiss as he expected, she tensed and started opening and closing her mouth clumsily as if she was gasping for air. "Relax," he whispered into her mouth.  
  
They heard someone clear her throat. They looked towards the door and found a stern looking woman who was looking reproachfully at Jessica.  
  
"In the hospital room. Jessica?" she asked coldly.  
  
"In the hospital room, indeed," Jessica answered; her voice just as cold, although her eyes were burning with rage. "In the hospital room and everywhere we want to, Mother."  
  
to be continued.. 


	13. chapter 13

Chapter 13  
  
The woman seemed scandalized. "What did you just say?" she demanded sharply.  
  
"I said that I am going to kiss my husband from now on wherever I feel like doing so," Jessica repeated defiantly.  
  
The older woman walked towards Jessica and raised her hand to slap her but Wes stopped the hand right before it made contact with his wife's face.  
  
"You have hurt your daughter enough," he snarled, showing the fire that consumed his blue eyes whenever he was truly angry.  
  
"Get your hand off me!" Mrs. Smith snapped, tugging her arm out of Wes' grasp. The blond businessman wrapped his strong arm around his wife's waist. She put her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes with a dreamy expression. "What have you done with everything I taught you?" the woman snapped to her daughter.  
  
"I'm in the process of getting rid of it," Jessica answered, her eyes still closed. She moved her head up, and, in an unexpected move, kissed Wes' neck. He closed his eyes in pleasure as well, and the woman put a hand on her heart.  
  
"And now what? You are going to forget about your responsibilities? Are you going to start partying and forgetting about Bio-Lab?! Are you going to ignore everything your father taught you?!"  
  
"I DOUBT I'LL BE FORGETTING THAT ANYTIME SOON!!" Jessica barked, her eyes open in anger staring fiercely at her mother, who, cold as ice, didn't even flinch.  
  
"Your husband told me you were on the verge of death," the older woman said, looking at Wes, who had again drawn Jessica towards his body and was caressing her red hair.  
  
"Yes, that's what released me from all of your craziness! That's what opened my eyes! I can't live the way you and Dad lived, because I love my husband, and I want to be happy! I want to have fun! Now that I'm married I will have all the fun you and Dad didn't let me have when I was a teenager! And I will have sex with my husband wherever and whenever I want!" She added this last bit mordantly, then she blushed furiously and avoided both Wes' and her mother's eyes. Wes put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it tenderly. She hugged him, burying her face in his chest, obviously embarrassed.  
  
"Fine!" the old woman said angrily. "Destroy everything your fathers worked all of their lives for! Go and have fun! Have sex! Forget about Bio-Lab!"  
  
"There's a time for work; and a time for fun," Wes said quietly. Jessica was shaking.  
  
"I didn't ask you for your opinion, you careless stupid man!"  
  
"Wes is very caring," Jessica said from Wes' chest. "And I think you have to go, Mom," she added, finally turning around to face her.  
  
"Are you throwing me out?"  
  
"Out of my life until you realize I can't continue to live the way you want me to," Jessica said, grasping Wes' hand tightly, her knees shaking. Wes took her hand, and wrapped his arm around her waist, to hold her standing.  
  
Without any other word, Jessica's mother turned around and left. Jessica collapsed into tears after she left, and she hung from Wes' neck. He held her tight and led her to the bed, where he sat and she curled up in his lap, like a baby.  
  
From the window of the room's door, Katie, Trip, and Lucas watched the couple. They had seen Jessica's mother walk out of the room from across the hall, and had approached the bedroom's door in hope of talking to Wes as soon as they could. But the image that had met their eyes was emotionally heavy, and they all stopped dead on their tracks.  
  
"Where have I seen this before?" Lucas asked quietly.  
  
"In Jen's apartment, ten months ago," Trip answered. "When we got there, Alex was holding her just like that, but Jen was unconscious. Wes's wife is distraught."  
  
They stood watching the scene, until a deep growling voice made them all jump. "Now, what are you three doing here?"  
  
They turned around. "Eric," Katie said nervously. "Hi."  
  
********************************  
  
"What's taking them so long?" Alex asked.  
  
"Jessica just had a scene with her mother, the others are trying to respect the moment, she's crying, and Wes is trying to console her," Jen explained, her stare lost into nothingness.  
  
"And who is going to console Wes when Jessica gets killed?" he asked irritably.  
  
"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence," Jen said sarcastically.  
  
"I mean it, Jen," he said. "You may not have noticed it, but I did." Jen blinked, losing her connection with Wes and looked at him. "Three mutants just left The Mistress' ship, and they are heading to the hospital."  
  
"Let me help the others," she asked him.  
  
"Hurry."  
  
"Don't worry," Jen said distractedly, her gaze against lost. "They just got the help they need."  
  
***************  
  
"Hi," Eric answered with a sarcastic smile. "You haven't answered me," he snapped.  
  
"Yes, well, um, we, I mean--" Trip began.  
  
"Well, that IS a great thing to be doing here, can I join in?" The quantum Ranger asked, his usual bitter personality charming them like always.  
  
"What he meant is that we have to talk to Wes," Katie explained.  
  
"Too late, he's retired from the Ranger life. He's a serious businessman and is married now," Eric said shortly. "So whatever it is, he won't help."  
  
"He will," Lucas said. "Because his wife being in danger is what we're talking about."  
  
Eric stared at them, his face blank. He knocked on the door.  
  
Wes looked up and saw him and his companions. Not without a curious look, he whispered something to Jessica, left her on the bed and walked towards the door.  
  
"Guys?" he asked, breathless with surprise. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"We came here to warn you," Lucas whispered, his eyes fixed on Jessica. "Your wife's in danger."  
  
More than you can imagine. Wes heard Jen's voice in his head.  
  
"Jen?" he asked, looking around for her.  
  
"She's back in the ship," Katie said.  
  
"B-but I just heard her," Wes stammered.  
  
"It's a long story," Trip whispered.  
  
Wes, listen to me, you have to tell the others that three mutants are on their way to the hospital. Tell them to watch out for Jessica! Jen said into his mind.  
  
"What's going on here?" Wes asked, his voice slightly angry. "Why are you back? What do you mean, my wife is in danger?"  
  
Wes! I need you to tell--  
  
"Shut up!" Wes snapped at her. "Go away, I have new responsibilities now." He looked at Eric and pointed into the room with his head. Eric entered and Jessica sat on the bed.  
  
"Are you denying us your help? Even if this is about your wife?" Katie asked, amazed.  
  
"Yes," the blond man answered and closed the door behind him as he entered.  
  
"Now what?" Katie asked her two companions.  
  
"We better go back to the ship," Lucas suggested.  
  
Don't even think about it!! They heard Jen's desperate voice in their heads. The Mistress and three of her mutants are on their way there!  
  
"Three mutants? We're going to need back up!" Trip said.  
  
We're on our way! Jen called.  
  
"She could have contacted us through the communicators. She always makes me dizzy when she communicates telepathically!" Katie complained.  
  
In that moment, a woman yelled behind them, inside the room. They broke in and saw Wes and Eric, both in a fighting stance in front of a winged mutant, female, who was ready to fight them.  
  
"I'm here for the woman!" the mutant, who looked like a butterfly, announced.  
  
"You're not taking her anywhere!" Eric answered. "Wes, we'll have to fight unmorphed, I don't have my morpher with me!"  
  
"You have to help me to protect Jessica!" Wes half begged.  
  
Lucas, Katie and Trip entered the room. "Time for Time Force!" they yelled.  
  
"Wes, protect Jessica, get her out of this room!" Lucas yelled as he and his teammates charged against the butterfly mutant.  
  
**************************  
  
Downstairs it was mayhem. Two mutants were attacking all the reporters posted outside waiting to hear about Jessica's miraculous recovery. Jen and Alex arrived, fully morphed, at the scene. As they dismounted their vector cycles, they were photographed by about a hundred cameras at once.  
  
"Jen, you take the female," Alex told her. "I'll take the big guy."  
  
"Let me take the big guy," Jen pleaded. "I can attack him better, I can stay away from him, I don't have to fight body to body, you do," she explained.  
  
"True, but--"  
  
"Save the pride for later, Alex," Jen chided.  
  
"Okay," he agreed and charged towards the other female mutant, this one looked like a rabbit that had been put together by Dr. Frankenstein. As they fought they saw a shower of glass coming down, presumably from Jessica's window.  
  
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!!" Alex yelled at everyone. People yelled and ran away from the deadly falling pieces.  
  
What Jen and Alex didn't notice was The Mistress running towards the building, perfectly hidden among the terrified civilians. She went to the elevator and went to the fifth floor, where Jessica's room was now. She got out of the elevator and saw Wes, Eric and Jessica running out of the room. Putting on her best concerned face, she ran to them.  
  
"Wesley! Jessica! Eric! This way!" she called them. They looked at her for a moment, panting. "I'm with Time Force, come on!" she insisted. Wes took Jessica's hand and allowed the woman to lead them into an empty room, all the way across the floor from Jessica's room, where Katie, Trip and Lucas could still be heard fighting.  
  
When they got in, The Mistress turned to them. She had a gun in her hand and a smile on her face.  
  
To be continued. 


	14. chapter 14

Chapter 14  
  
"One would think that a year as Power Rangers would have taught you who to trust," The Mistress said happily.  
  
Eric stood in a fight stance in front of Wes and Jessica. Wes covered Jessica with his body protectively. She covered her head with her arms, crying in fear.  
  
"Now, I just want the redhead," The woman told them. "If you let me have her, you can save your own lives."  
  
"Well, it turns out that I wouldn't want to live my life without the redhead," Wes answered angrily.  
  
"And it turns out my job is to protect the redhead," Eric explained in turn.  
  
"Oh, well," The woman said. "I tried."  
  
*********************************  
  
Jen gave the mutant a kick, and sent him flying, with the help of her powers, across the street. Finally she grabbed a hold on him with her telekinetic powers and held him in the air.  
  
She summoned her freezer blaster, and aimed at his DNA patch, which she had to shoot to reduce and freeze him, but just as she was about to fire, she heard a voice calling her name.  
  
"Jen!" It was Alex.  
  
She turned around and ran to kick the Frankenstein-like mutant from him. "You okay?" she asked, as she observed him rub his neck where the mutant had tried to strangle him.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine," he said, but she didn't hear him. Another voice was calling her name from above, this one she heard in her mind. She looked up, and her husband put his hand on her shoulder, both mutants were regrouping and preparing to charge against them.  
  
"What's wrong?" he asked.  
  
"The Mistress!" Jen said. "She's got Wes, Jessica and Eric upstairs in a room; she's going to kill all three of them!" She sounded desperate. "There is no way we can get there in time!!"  
  
"What do you mean there's no way we can get there in time?!" Alex asked, amazed. "What's the teleportation device included in the Officer Gloves for, then?"  
  
"But, the mutants!" she pointed out.  
  
Alex pressed a button in his officer glove, which was substituting for one of his suit's gloves. A small silver square with black borders appeared in his hand.  
  
"What's that?" Jen asked.  
  
"A laser web, like the one the megazord has, only smaller, but just as strong. We will deploy it in front of the hospital gates, it will keep them out," he explained. She nodded. They both climbed the stairs in front of the hospital's entrance, and then Alex threw the silver square in front of the glass doors. "Laser web, activate!" he called. It did. The glowing green laser web covered the entire front face of the building.  
  
"We don't have much time," he told Jen. "They'll find a different way to go in."  
  
"Why don't we use my web on them? To be doubly sure, I mean," she suggested.  
  
"Great idea," he agreed. She pressed the button on her Officer Glove and threw the square at the mutants. With the mutant DNA sensor the web had, she didn't need to activate it. It activated by itself, covering both mutants, who were just too stunned to even try to escape.  
  
"Okay, now, listen carefully," Alex told her. "Where do we want to teleport to?"  
  
"The fifth floor," Jen said.  
  
Alex pointed his glove at the building and then said to his right hand "Fifth floor, calculate coordinates."  
  
"Coordinates calculated," a voice told him.  
  
"Share with the squad," he demanded.  
  
Jen heard a computerized voice say in her ear, "Your superior has shared with you coordinates for teleportation, do you wish to teleport now?"  
  
"Hell, yeah!!" she said.  
  
"It has predetermined answers, Jen," Alex told her. "Yes will do."  
  
"Yes," she said.  
  
It was the most awful sensation ever. It felt like being sucked by a giant vacuum cleaner. It felt like traveling in time without the time ship. She landed completely dizzy, and she distinctly remembered screaming.  
  
"Enjoyed the ride?" Alex asked behind her.  
  
"Oh, yes," she said sarcastically. "Almost as much as making love to you," she added with a smile that was covered by her helmet.  
  
"You know, if you didn't have that helmet on, I would attack your earlobe right now," he muttered.  
  
"If you didn't have that suit on, I would attack a lot of your body parts right now," she answered. "Let's focus," she said, serious again. She felt Wes's presence somewhere in front of them. Just as they approached the door of the room she had felt him in, it burst open and The Mistress fell out of the room, as if she had just been pushed.  
  
**********************************************  
  
It all happened in a second. Eric dived out of the way of the blast and hit the woman on the knees, making her fall backwards. Jessica had yelled, truly terrified. The woman had moved to pick up her gun, but Eric kicked it away. She had gotten to her feet and had tried to reach Jessica, but Eric had driven her away from her target, with no respect for her gender or her age.  
  
He had ultimately grabbed her and thrown her out of the room, in hopes to get enough time to get Jessica and Wes out safely. However, as he stepped into the hall, he saw the Pink Time Force Ranger and the Black Time Force Ranger (He had never seen that one before) running at his target.  
  
"Freeze!" the Black Ranger yelled, but the woman pulled out a small cube and vanished from sight. "Damn it!" the Ranger cursed.  
  
"She's retreating," Jen said, noticing how all three mutants suddenly left the surrounding of the building. "Probably went out to find more mutants," she warned.  
  
"We have to get Jessica Collins out of this building," The Black Ranger urged. His voice was strangely familiar.  
  
"Let's go in and explain ourselves," Jen suggested.  
  
Inside of the empty room, Jessica was crouched on the floor, shaking with fear, tears running down her cheeks. Wes was trying to comfort her.  
  
"Wes, we need to talk," Jen started.  
  
"Yes, I'd say we do," he told her bitterly.  
  
*********************************  
  
Twenty minutes later, all the Time Force Rangers, still morphed, were standing in front of the Collinses and Eric. "What the hell is going on here, Wesley?" Jessica asked.  
  
"I'm not sure," he answered truthfully.  
  
Jen took a step forward. "Jessica, it's my fault that you are being targeted by these criminals," she admitted sadly.  
  
"Why? What did I do?" she asked.  
  
"We come from the year 3005, your husband will explain who we are, but he'll have to do it later, we have to take you to a secure location, and this certainly isn't one," Jen told her.  
  
"It's littered with reporters down there. Jessica Collin's miraculous recovery and the Power Rangers coming back! It's their version of a feast!" Eric pointed out angrily.  
  
"Well, we can leave by air," Jessica said softly. "The Silver Guardians have helicopters, we just have to summon one."  
  
"We can't," Eric said bitterly.  
  
"Why not?" Jessica asked.  
  
"Because Wes here followed your advice and announced you are closing the Silver Guardians. There's a strike, all the former employees have taken over the installations and the equipment," he informed her.  
  
Jessica covered her mouth with her hands, looking truly concerned. "Is that true Wesley?" she asked her husband.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Why didn't you tell me?"  
  
"Because," Wes started, shooting Eric a severe look. "I was waiting until you recovered a bit more."  
  
"Excuse me," the Black Ranger said. "Mrs. Collins is not safe here, so facing the reporters or not, she has to go."  
  
"A helicopter from the Silver Guardians is on its way," Jen announced.  
  
"Didn't you just hear what I just said?" Eric asked angrily.  
  
"Yes, I did. But I have ways to make this happen," she explained. "Wes, you have to organize a press conference in your house, tell the reporters what happened with Jessica."  
  
"And that was?" he asked. "Because I certainly don't know what happened to Jessica."  
  
"We'll explain later," Jen promised. "You have to tell the reporters that you used a new technology developed by Bio-Lab. Pay attention; it's carbon nano-machine technology. They repair the body and then they dissolve, leaving no traces. Say that's all you can tell them, and that very few people in Bio-Lab know about this project, because it's very secret and nobody can give them any more information, do you understand?"  
  
"Yes, I do," Wes said.  
  
"Well, we have to leave now, we have to track The Mistress down, we'll contact you later, to finish the plan," the Black Ranger said.  
  
"One more thing," Wes called. "Who are you?" he asked the new Ranger.  
  
"Exactly who you think I am," he answered. Wes then saw him take the Pink Ranger's gloved hand and he knew who it was under the helmet.  
  
****************************  
  
In the helicopter, being flown by a strange looking pilot, with his eyes slightly out of focus and a bizarrely pleasant smile, Jessica looked at her husband, who was looking down thoughtfully at the city.  
  
"I have never seen you so serious," she commented. He blinked and looked at her, managing a smile. "Are you going to explain to me what happened back there? Who are those people? How do they know you? Why are you on a first name basis with them? What is it that you haven't told me yet?" she bombarded him with questions, thirsty for information.  
  
"Well, I guess the answer to all that is the same," he told her sadly. "When we met, you once mentioned you had been in Europe for a couple of years before we met. While you were there, the city was attacked by this monster called 'Ransik'. Ransik had a gang of mutants, monsters like himself, who were trying to destroy the city. Those people came back through time to bring him back, and they eventually did, months before we met. I think you came back right after they went back to the future. They are the Time Force Power Rangers, and I know this is a hard story to believe, but it's true," he explained all that in a flat voice, it sounded to Jessica as if he was making the ultimate confession of an horrible crime.  
  
"That still doesn't explain why you are on a first name basis with them," she insisted.  
  
Wes looked at her sadly. It was hard for him having to tell her all this at that time, when their marriage seemed to be finally taking off. He smiled sadly and sighed heavily. "I was the Red Time Force Ranger all throughout that battle," he admitted, not daring to look at her eyes.  
  
Jessica was left open mouthed. Apparently he was making the ultimate confession of a very well kept secret.  
  
To be continued 


	15. chapter 15

Chapter 15  
  
"You what?" she asked softly.  
  
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I thought it was all in the past!" he said hurriedly. "Besides, would you have believed me if you hadn't met them?"  
  
Jessica had to admit she wouldn't have. "So, you were a Power Ranger," she muttered. She felt lightheaded, dizzy and confused, as if she was in a weird dream. "Anything else I need to know right now?"  
  
"You need to know, that no matter what you may think after this, I love you." Jessica noted the strange emphasis he put on the word 'you'.  
  
"What is it you are not telling me?" she asked, her eyes filling with tears.  
  
So many things went through Wes's head at that moment. Jen, Alex, his morpher, which was locked in a box in the basement with pictures of the other Rangers, his adventures, but the first thought kept coming back. The love he had once declared he felt for Jen. Would Jessica believe he loved her for who she was if she found out about Jen? He decided to leave that conversation for the next day, after the press conference.  
  
"I've told you pretty much everything," he said, smiling at her.  
  
She stared at him for a while, but she didn't feel like being angry at her husband that afternoon, so she just switched places, to sit next to him and buried her face in his neck. "Well, if that's it, perhaps when we get home, we can do that thing you like so much," she whispered in his ear. "What is it you call it when you take all my clothes off?" she asked in a fake ignorant tone.  
  
"Love-making," he answered, wrapping his arm around her. He turned to face her and saw a shine in her green eyes he had never seen before.  
  
"Oh, yes," she said as she tenderly rubbed her nose against his. "I'd like to do some of that," she admitted.  
  
Wes smiled at her for an instant. Where had she learned so suddenly to be so tender and sexy and playful? He decided he didn't care. "Well, you can have as much of it as you want," he promised and leaned in to kiss her.  
  
This time, and it made him feel even worse about the information he was keeping from her, she didn't tense, but actually relaxed in his arms and followed the rhythm of his lips in the kiss, making it long and passionate.  
  
"I love you, Wesley," she muttered dreamily, her eyes closed, the expression on her face showing how much pleasure she was having with her new romantic attitude.  
  
"And I love you, Jessica," he said, his eyes closed as well, his forehead pressed against his wife's. The words came from his heart. The heart that was crushed by guilt moments before now flew free with its love. He knew, suddenly, he could convince her that his heart was hers.  
  
***********************************  
  
Jen half moaned. "Alex," she whispered, into her husband's ear.  
  
"Yes?" he asked, not stopping his loving attack on her breasts.  
  
"I love you," she said plainly. He looked up at her eyes.  
  
"I love you too," he said softly, burying his face in her breasts again, kissing them softly.  
  
"I want to thank you," she said then.  
  
"For what?" he asked moving his kisses lower, to her abdomen.  
  
"For making me so very happy," she told him. He chuckled against her soft skin and kissed her belly. "I'm sorry that's empty," she said.  
  
"Hey, we'll have our children eventually," he assured her, now kissing her softly all around her belly button, with a fast succession of small kisses.  
  
"Yeah, I guess," she said, relaxing. No point in worrying about their children, or about Wes and Jessica. She sat on the bed, decided to give her husband back some of the affection and pleasure he was giving her.  
  
*****************************  
  
Jessica sat on the bed, nervously. This wasn't the first time she and Wes had had sex, but certainly it was going to be the first time they made love. He approached her and kissed her. She returned the kiss, the way she had read in the magazines she had sometimes read in the beauty salon, when she had nothing to work on. She felt his kisses trailing down from her mouth to her neck, as his hands began tugging with the tail of her shirt.  
  
She took a deep breath and tried to relax reminding herself that, no matter what her parents said, it was all right to love her husband. Wes's lips returned to hers, as he slowly took off her clothes. He then pushed her gently on her back, and the last thought that crossed Jessica's mind before she was drowned in her pleasure was: He really loves me. Despite everything, he really loves me.  
  
How was she to know that certainty was going to go through a trial by fire the very next morning?  
  
*******************************  
  
"I visit Bio-Lab's laboratories every month or so, to check that everything is fine and that the projects are actually working. Last month I showed up in the biology laboratory, to check it out, and one of the aides accidentally knocked down one of the containers, which broke. It contained the bacteria that infected me," Jessica explained.  
  
"Then why didn't it affect the other scientists?" A reporter asked.  
  
"Because they are under constant antibiotic treatment," she answered, holding Wes's hand under the table. "They are protected against most of the hazards of their profession."  
  
"Well, I guess it's time for the question everybody has been wanting to ask," said a blonde reporter maliciously. "How was it, exactly, that you were cured of a life threatening pneumonia to almost perfect health, overnight?"  
  
"I guess I'm the one who has to answer that," Wes said quickly. "I authorized some of Bio-Lab's scientists to conduct an experiment on Jessica, in an effort to cure her. It's for a top secret project, only a few people know about it, Jessica and me included, of course," he said.  
  
"Can you tell us the nature of this experiment, Mr. Collins?" the reporter asked.  
  
"I'm afraid I can't. The only thing I can tell you is that we didn't use any kind of drug on Jessica. She's perfectly healthy now, we believe the experiment won't have secondary effects."  
  
"Are they true, the rumors that are going around that this experience changed the nature of your relationship?" asked a brunette with curly hair. Wes knew her, she worked for a tabloid.  
  
"That's none of your business," Jessica snapped. The woman scribbled furiously fast in her notebook.  
  
"Yes, it did," Wes added at the sight of this. Jessica threw him an annoyed look, but Wes just tried to tell her with his eyes to trust him. "We are, if possible, closer and happier than ever now," he said with a smile Jessica had to imitate.  
  
The previous night had been amazing. All those people in that room probably would never understand the importance that event had had in their lives. She felt Wes's hand squeeze hers under the table and smiled wider, looking into her husband's eyes, forgetting completely where she was and about the other people in the room.  
  
"Well, I guess that's it," Wes told the reporters, who immediately began to complain. "Jessica still needs to rest, and we have a busy week ahead of us, so if you would please leave," he said as an answer to their complaining.  
  
Jessica got to her feet and allowed her husband to guide her out of the living room, through a door that was being guarded by two men in black suits. One of them was Eric; the other was one of the Silver Guardians. Now both of them were Jessica's personal escort.  
  
In the other room the Power Rangers waited for the Collinses to finish their conference. As the door closed behind them, Jessica put one of her hands on her chest and let out a long, heavy breath. Immediately, Wes was all over her.  
  
"Honey, are you all right?" he asked her.  
  
"Yes, Wesley," she said, giving a smile he gladly mirrored. "I'm all right; it's just that, for the first time since we got hold of Bio-Lab, I was nervous about a press conference. I guess I don't know how to deal with tabloids."  
  
"Good thing I do," Wes said, kissing her hand.  
  
Alex cleared his throat. Both of the Collinses looked over at the black Ranger. On the desk lay a black box containing Wes's morpher and the pictures he was fearing for Jessica to see. He looked at it, scared.  
  
Jessica walked towards it, but Wes got in the way. "Why don't you guys tell us what's going on here?" he asked the others, holding his wife in his arms rather tightly.  
  
"You didn't tell her, did you?" the pink Ranger asked.  
  
"Jen, can I talk to you in private for a second?" Wes requested. Jessica looked at him, her face showing concern and suspicion.  
  
Jen. Where had she heard that name before?  
  
Wes and Jen retired to the hall for a moment. "I didn't tell her about what happened between us, and I beg you to please not tell her," he said softly.  
  
"Exactly what happened between us?" she asked. "I married Alex, Wes; I didn't come here to ruin your marriage. You should have told her about us though."  
  
"Why should she know how I felt about you?"  
  
"I meant her and me, Wes!" Jen snapped angrily. "I think she deserves to know."  
  
"Fine, let's go and I'll tell her," he agreed. "Just one more thing," he said before they went in. "How come I could hear you in my mind while you were back at the ship? Yesterday, I mean," he asked.  
  
"It's a long story, I'll explain later," she promised.  
  
They entered the room, and Wes found himself looking at the picture he was most afraid of. Jessica was standing next to the desk, holding a picture in her right hand, the left covering her trembling mouth, as her eyes filled with tears of confusion and fear. She looked at him from over the picture, a single tear running down her cheek.  
  
"Jessica," Wes started, moving towards her, but she put her hand in front of her, asking him to stop.  
  
"Who is this woman?" she asked, showing him a picture of Jen. Wes lowered his gaze and took a deep breath, but he didn't answer. "Who is she?!" Jessica asked in a desperate tone. She needed to know, she had to know who that woman was. "It's not me! I've never worn my hair like that!"  
  
"And she has brown eyes," Wes added in an undertone.  
  
Jessica crossed her arms and looked at him menacingly, thrusting her chin forward, the same way Jen used to do when she was angry. "So? Are you going to tell me who she is today?!"  
  
"It's me," the pink Ranger said. "Power Down!" she ordered, pressing the button in her morpher. "I'm the woman in the picture," Jen said. "My name is Jennifer Scotts, I came, along with my friends, from the year three thousand and five. Wes fought along with us as the red Ranger, and his help was very useful."  
  
Jessica was shaking her head, tears running freely down her cheeks. Wes marveled at the freedom she was giving to her feelings, the old Jessica would have never cried in front of other people. She would have never even shown she was hurt, but the woman standing in front of him seem ready to drop to her knees and cry at any moment.  
  
"Jen," she said softly, a light of dawning understanding illuminating her eyes. "That's what you called me," she told Wes in a broken voice, "when we first met."  
  
To be continued. 


	16. chapter 16

Chapter 16  
  
"Yes," Wes agreed. There was no point in denying it. "For a second I thought Jen might have been back, that something might have gone wrong." He was lying. For a second, when he had first seen Jessica, he had hoped Jen was back, not because something was wrong, but to be with him.  
  
"I want to see the faces of the others," Jessica demanded. "NOW!" she demanded desperately.  
  
Alex looked at Jen. They both had the certainty that seeing his face would only confirm Jessica's fears. That Jen and Wes loved each other, and that Wes had married her, not for who she was, but for who she looked like. Of course, Alex would be serving her same purpose, in Jen's case.  
  
"Power down!" the other three Rangers said at once and Jessica looked at them without much interest.  
  
"What's the problem with him?" she asked.  
  
"Jessica, you have to calm down," Jen began, but was cut off by Jessica's yell.  
  
"CALM DOWN?! How can you ask me to calm down?! I just discovered my husband never really loved me!" She added the last bit with true misery tainting her voice.  
  
"Jessica, that's not true!" Wes said, tears running down his own cheeks. "That's why I didn't want to tell you about her! I knew you would feel like this."  
  
"Don't I have a reason?" Jessica asked Wes defiantly.  
  
"No, you don't," Wes assured her. "I love you. There was nothing between Jen and me, nothing at all." He was lying again, but nobody dared to correct him.  
  
"Nothing at all?" Jessica repeated.  
  
"I promise," he told her, finally grabbing her hand. "I swear," he said looking at her straight to the eye.  
  
"Then I want to see him," she demanded, pointing at the black Ranger. "If there was nothing between you, then he better be your exact opposite."  
  
"I am," the black Ranger said. "Although, at first sight, you might not see it," he added. Jessica closed her eyes with a pained expression. She already knew what the face hidden under that helmet looked like. "Power down," Alex muttered.  
  
Jessica opened her eyes slowly. At the sight of Alex she shook her head 'no' and with a fresh wave of tears, ran out of the studio.  
  
"Jess!" Wes called, going after her.  
  
"Leave me alone, Wesley," she told him, keeping her back to him. "Go back, and enjoy your beloved Jennifer, who's back to finally be with you!" and with those last bitter words, she locked herself in her home office.  
  
Wes lowered his gaze, tears also running down his cheeks. He had been so close to finally being happy with his wife. He was so certain the previous night would have convinced her of his love for her, but he had been wrong, by the looks of it.  
  
He returned to the studio and without looking at any of his former teammates he said, "Leave. I don't want any of you in my house again," then he turned and left the room.  
  
Jen, after getting an approving nod from Alex, followed him. "Wes, she had to know," she told him. "Let me talk to her, perhaps I could--"  
  
"NO!" he said forcefully. "Don't even think about it. You've told her enough."  
  
"Let me do it," said a deep voice from behind them. Alex was standing in the door.  
  
"Yeah, that'll work!" Wes said with bitter sarcasm.  
  
"Think about it, Wesley. I'm technically in her same position. If there's anybody that can convince her you love her and Jen loves me, it's me. She's going to trust me, because she thinks I know what she's going through." He shot Jen a guilty look and added, "And she's right."  
  
Jen gave him a puzzled look. He had never before mentioned doubting she loved him, he had always seemed so confident that it was him and not Wes who was in her heart. "Alex?" she asked, not without apprehension.  
  
He ignored her, keeping his eyes focused on Wes. "Let me talk to her," he pleaded. Wes looked at him questioningly, but he seemed to decide his intentions were good, because he nodded at his descendant and looked away, from his figure that was walking towards Jessica's office, and from his wife, who was standing there, staring after him.  
  
Alex knocked on the door. "Mrs. Collins?" he asked. "Mrs. Collins?!" he called louder.  
  
Jen jerked out of her thoughts about her husband's doubts and looked at the door, her gaze lost, as if she was trying to listen to something others couldn't. "Alex, get out of the way!" she yelled, running to him desperately and pushing him away from the door, which blew up a split second later.  
  
There was a smoke curtain, and nothing could be seen for a few seconds. Then a woman yelled, and Wes ran into the smoke filled room. "Jessica!" he called her.  
  
Forgetting all her previous doubts, she called for him. "Wesley! Help me!" she begged.  
  
He then saw it, a big dark figure could be seen through the smoke, leaning over his wife's body, which was pinned to the floor by the weight of her attacker. Suddenly, the huge mutant flew away, as if kicked by an invisible warrior. Jen, standing menacingly in the door, looked at him, with her furious gaze lost in the mutant's only eye.  
  
"Tell your Mistress that she better come up with another plan!" she snarled at the attacker. "Tell her that killing Jessica Collins will only result in her son's disappearance from history, not mine." After she was done, the mutant turned around and walked away, as if in trance.  
  
"What the--" Wes demanded. "What's going on here?"  
  
"Alex's mother has gone insane. She's evil, and she has an army of mutants working for her. She hates me, because I stopped her plans to destroy Time Force and rule the world, twice. So now she wants me out of history, and she seems to believe Jessica is my ancestor from this time," Jen said tonelessly, still staring at the point where the mutant had been standing.  
  
"What did just happen to that mutant?" Wes asked.  
  
"I controlled his mind," Jen said distractedly.  
  
"How did you learn to do that?" Wes asked, trying to move closer to Jessica, who stood up and moved away from him, obviously still hurt.  
  
"I am a psychic," Jen said softly. Then she turned her gaze to Jessica. "We were in love," she said simply. "Or so we thought," she added last and left the ruined room without another word.  
  
Wes followed her out, angry. "That certainly helped our cause!" he yelled at her.  
  
"It did," Jen said. "Because pretending we didn't love each other, lying to her about it, is only confirming her fear that we are still in love, and in denial."  
  
Wes was left speechless, and entered the studio, where he was greeted By Katie, Trip and Lucas. Jen walked towards the living room, and stared out the window, to the beautiful gardens that surrounded the house. A tear slipped down her cheek. Why hadn't Alex ever mentioned to her that he didn't completely believe she wasn't in love with Wes anymore?  
  
Back in the ruined office, Jessica was also staring at the point where the mutant had been standing. Alex put a hand on her shoulder and she looked at him, looking confused and terrified.  
  
"I know this is too much to take in all at once," he said in a soft voice. "But you have to take it one bit at a time. For now, I suggest you focus on protecting your life, we'll deal with Wes and Jen later."  
  
She looked at him. "We?" she asked distractedly.  
  
"Yes, because, although I never told Jen this, I have the same fears you have right now. I have the same confusion and the same constant pain, all the doubts you are having," he assured her.  
  
"Then why are you still married to her?" she asked.  
  
"Because I love her," he said. "And she's innocent until proven guilty."  
  
Jessica lowered her head. "I just thought of something," she began.  
  
"They may have loved each other, but I think it was a puppy crush," he said.  
  
She shook her head. "It's not that," she said, looking up at him again. "I just realized Josephine and her children might be in danger," she said distractedly, as if she didn't realize who she was talking to.  
  
"Who's Josephine?" Alex asked, concerned.  
  
"My twin sister," Jessica said simply.  
  
To be continued. 


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17  
  
"You have a twin sister?" Wes asked her.  
  
"Yes," Jessica said, not looking at him. They were sitting in the living room, all together, discussing Josephine.  
  
"Where is she? Why didn't you tell me about her? How come I've never met her?" the blond man insisted.  
  
"It was Josephine who ruined my life!" Jessica snapped. "Not that my life was heaven, but it turned even worse after she ran away. Mother and Father tightened their disciplinary measures for me after Josephine left, fearing I might do the same thing she did."  
  
"Which was?"  
  
"Getting pregnant by her twenty-years-older boyfriend, marrying him in secret and running away, leaving all her responsibilities as an older sister behind her, leaving them to me to be more exact." Jessica's voice was bitter and angry.  
  
"She got pregnant and ran away?" Wes asked, amazed. His mind was crossed by the scene of a woman who looked like Jessica running away with an old man who looked like Ransik but without the mutant part.  
  
"Yes, so Father cut her out of his will, and I inherited the company, while Mother inherited the house," Jessica explained. Besides Wes and herself, everyone was silent. "Of course, since she left, Father decided he had to train me to run Bio-Lab. So he burnt all my art stuff and the portfolio I had prepared to enter a fashion design school in Italy, and forced me to study business and management. I was forced to study and to work, the only kind of parties I was allowed to go to were business parties. That's the reason everybody knew me already when I joined Bio-Lab's board." She was talking to the ceiling, for she didn't feel like looking at anybody in that room at the moment.  
  
"She is out of the will, and married, that's probably the reason The Mistress didn't know about her, there must be no documentation available about her." It was the boy with green hair talking. They hadn't mentioned their names, and Jessica hadn't bothered to ask.  
  
"My family!" Jen said suddenly. Everyone in the room looked at her. "All the information in my genealogic tree, all the information about my family and its business is missing, in the future, for the first fifty years of the 21st century!"  
  
"So, you think Josephine is your ancestor?" Alex asked.  
  
"It could be," she said, shrugging, not looking at him. It didn't go past Alex; her awkward behavior towards him.  
  
"Do you know what happened to your sister?" Alex asked Jessica.  
  
"She lives in the north area of the city. Her husband, Kevin, has a farm there," she said tiredly. She just wanted to go to sleep, to have some rest, to let all the information sink into her mind.  
  
"A farm?" Jen repeated. "It has to be her!" she yelled happily. "Does she have any children?"  
  
"Five-year-old twin boys. Mathew and Mark," the red-haired business woman answered. "Can I go and get some rest now?"  
  
"Sure," Alex said, nodding to her. Jessica got up from her chair and walked towards the door. She caught a glimpse of Wes standing up to follow her.  
  
"Not now, Wesley, please," she begged. He sat back down, his face obviously sad.  
  
**********************************  
  
"Remove Alex from history?" The Mistress asked her one-eyed mutant. She cursed loudly. "Well, prepare! We have to find ourselves a new base of operations, and it has to be fast! If Jessica Smith is not the farm girl's ancestor, we have to stay here and find out who is!"  
  
All her mutants prepared to unpack except for the three mutants she had taken with her to the hospital. They were staying with her, waiting for more direct orders. "Fly-Tag," she told her butterfly-like mutant. "Fly around the city, and find a building good and empty enough for us," she ordered. The mutant bowed to her mistress and took off, towards the city. "The rest of you, keep an eye out, anything that looks, moves or smells like the Time Force officers you will report to me." The two mutants also bowed and parted ways, to find lookout spots.  
  
The Mistress stood there, massaging the sides of her head, trying to make the headache go away. This wasn't going the way she wanted it to go, she had wanted it to be quick and clean, but it was taking too long and was starting to get messy. She opened her eyes and looked at the sea. "Well, if this is going to get messy," she said softly to herself, "it's going to get messy all the way."  
  
***********************************  
  
It was late and the night was cold. Wes had taken back his first angry words, and had invited his friends to stay in the mansion, in the guest rooms. Jen and Alex had gotten the one where he had been sleeping the night he took Jessica to the hospital. It was right next to where Jessica was sleeping (hers and Wes's room, although she had asked him to get out), and they had insisted on staying close to her. Lucas and Trip were sharing another twin bedded room, and Wes and Eric were sharing an similar one. Katie got a room to herself, and she complained about it, saying she didn't like to be alone.  
  
In their bedroom, Alex and Jen sat, not talking to each other. She was sitting in the window, looking out at the star-filled sky. Alex noted her face was sad, and her eyes were tearing. She sniffled. It was more than Alex could take.  
  
"I'm not mad at you," he said softly. She tore her eyes from the sky and looked at him.  
  
"Why didn't you ever tell me you had doubts about me and Wes?" she asked, a tear running down her cheek.  
  
Alex sighed and moved to her, drying her tears with his hand as he knelt in front of her. "Hey, hey," he soothed as she sniffed again, more tears falling down her cheeks. "It's okay, Jen," he told her.  
  
"No, it's not," she whispered with a broken voice. "I never loved him," she choked out. "I always loved you, but you died on me, Alex, you died and I was scared, and alone, and away from home. He was the closest thing to- -to home, to normal, he was the closest thing to you and the happiness we once had that I could find in this new scary world, where I had to live without you and fight for the world. I had just graduated! I wasn't ready for such an important mission by myself yet." She poured her heart out, finally crying, and hugging her husband. He held her tight.  
  
"Hey, you weren't by yourself, you had your friends and you had him," he told her sweetly. He caressed her hair and she sobbed against his neck. "Jen, it turned out all right, didn't it? You got Ransik, you proved yourself a good leader!" He was trying to get to the side of her that was proud, but it wasn't working. She was still crying.  
  
"I wasn't ready!" she insisted. "It was so scary, I was so unprepared! And I felt so alone, because the burden was on my back! We were all fighting, yes, if we succeeded, we were all heroes; if we failed, it was my fault."  
  
"But you didn't fail," he told her. "You succeeded against Ransik, and you succeeded against The Mistress. And it turned out okay, because we're together, aren't we?" he asked, kissing the side of her head.  
  
"After years of pain," she said. "I caused you so much pain!" She finally released her hold on him to look him in the eye.  
  
"You suffered too," he said, wiping the tears off her face. "You suffered too, and I wish we hadn't had to go through it, but we did, and it's a bitch, but it's in the past." He kissed her forehead. "I'll tell you why I never told you about my doubts. It's because I never pay them any attention. Sometimes they come to me at night, and they try to haunt me, they try to convince me you still love him, but then I fight them back to their small, dark corner of my mind. They can't win against me, Jen, because I've been to your mind, and I know what you feel," he assured her.  
  
She smiled at last. He smiled back at her, and then leaned to kiss her; she kissed him back, lovingly. "Now, dry those tears and come to bed, okay? I'm not mad, I'm sure you love me, you are sure I love you, and we'll live happily ever after, okay? I promise," he said, getting to his feet and helping her up.  
  
"Alex," she began. He gave her his now-what? face. "What if I'm unable to ever give you a child?" She voiced her biggest fear.  
  
He sighed. "Not the children thing again," he said tiredly. "Jennifer, we've been through this before, children are not imperative for our marriage to work."  
  
"But you want one so much!" she insisted.  
  
"If we have one, that's great, if we don't, which I honestly doubt, then we adopt, or something; maybe it's better with our profession that we don't have children. Let's face it; what do we want to have children for? To worry about leaving them orphaned every time we go in the field?" he asked her. She shook her head. "That's right, no. Let's just forget about the children we haven't had yet, and let's worry about my mom and her desire to destroy the world, and about how we are going to make Jessica and Wes get back together." He added the last bit really fast.  
  
"What?!" she asked, suddenly letting go off him and pushing him away softly. "What do you mean 'we' are helping Jessica and Wes to get back together?" she asked, using her angry stance (folded arms, chin thrust forward).  
  
"We have to help them because it's our fault they had a fight, and it's part of our interference in their time," he explained. "It's part of our mess and we have to clean it up!" he whispered forcefully.  
  
"Alex, we can't interfere anymore! We have to let them fix this by themselves."  
  
"We have to try, at least," he said.  
  
"Alex..."  
  
"Let's get some sleep, we'll talk tomorrow."  
  
"Alex, we can't--"  
  
"Bed, Jennifer," he said, shortly pointing at it.  
  
"Why is it you never listen to my reasons?" she asked angrily.  
  
"Because, when it's professional, I'm your superior. When it's personal, I'm your husband, and, overall, I'm your elder, so I don't have to listen to anything you say," he answered playfully.  
  
"Oh, really?" she asked playfully as well.  
  
"Yes," he said simply and held her in his arms, ready to lead her to bed, and do anything but get some sleep. He kissed her deeply.  
  
"Hey, hey," she complained. "We can't do this tonight, not in this room. There's a woman right next door who just had a fight with her husband."  
  
"So?" he asked, simply kissing her neck, as he pinned her to the bed with his weight. "We'll just have to keep it quiet," he suggested.  
  
"Alex!" she chided, pushing him softly. "Honey, aren't you tired?"  
  
"Tired? Like a slave, but when have I been too tired when it's about making love to you?" he asked, kissing her deeply again.  
  
"Did you at least lock the door?" she asked.  
  
"No, he didn't," said a voice that was definitely not Alex's. It was Eric. "Sorry to interrupt the bunnies as they prepare to do their thing," he said bitterly. "But Wes is gone. I can't find him anywhere."  
  
"Perhaps he left to take a walk, or have a drink," Alex suggested, sitting on the bed next to Jen, who was still lying flat on her back.  
  
"Without his money, clothes or shoes?" Eric asked. "I doubt it."  
  
Jen looked at Alex. Then at Eric. "Where was the last place you saw him?" she asked.  
  
"He was going to take a shower in the bathroom in the hall," Eric answered.  
  
Jen got to her feet and ran to the bathroom. Eric looked at her and was about to follow her when Alex called him.  
  
"NO!" he yelled. Eric looked at him. "Leave her alone."  
  
"What the hell is she doing?" the Quantum Ranger asked.  
  
"Looking for trapped thoughts," Alex answered lamely. Eric let out a sarcastic laugh and rolled his eyes. However his expression changed when Jen got back.  
  
"Wake everybody up," she ordered. "The Mistress has got Wes."  
  
To be continued. 


	18. chapter 18

Chapter 18  
  
"Are you sure of what you're saying?" Alex asked her.  
  
"Of course I'm sure," she said. "There was a mutant in that room, and it took Wes with it."  
  
"There's only one problem with that," Eric said bitterly. "There is no way in the world a mutant can get in this house undetected."  
  
"There's one," Jen answered in the same tone. "It's called teleportation."  
  
"Teleportation?" Eric asked in a mocking tone. "So the mutant teleported into the bathroom, grabbed Wes in his underwear and teleported back to where it came from?"  
  
"Yes," Jen said, ignoring his sarcasm. She looked at Alex, who seemed lost in thought.  
  
"Something on your mind, handsome?" she asked him. He looked at her as if it was the first time he had ever seen her.  
  
"How did Mom get access to teleportation technology?" he asked. "Time Force just began toying with it."  
  
Jen looked at him, and frowned, trying hard to think of a way. "Did you have anything to do with developing the officer gloves? I noticed you knew very well how to work them," she asked out of nowhere.  
  
"What has that got to do with anything?" he asked, slightly annoyed at the change of subject.  
  
"Did you?" she insisted.  
  
"Yes, I was on the team of designers, why?"  
  
"Did you ever take any of that information home? Anything at all?" she continued her cryptic questioning.  
  
"Some of it," he answered. She gave him a meaningful look, but he was unable to guess its meaning.  
  
"What exactly?" she inquired.  
  
"Some information on the weapons and gadgets included in it," he answered naturally.  
  
Jen sent him the image of a blonde woman with a beautiful body he remembered as the last girlfriend he had had before marrying Jen. "Brynn," he said in a barely audible whisper.  
  
"She gave your mother information she stole from your computer," Jen said.  
  
"Yeah, but Mom is no computer genius," Alex refuted. "Even if she got the information, she would have been unable to understand it completely, much less reproduce it."  
  
"Alex, your mother is a criminal genius, who has a great criminal organization with tentacles spread all over the city!" Jen spat, annoyed. "Even Ransik worked for her! If crime in the future was a mafia, your mother would be the Don!" He snorted at the comparison but accepted that she was right.  
  
"So, you think she has technicians working for her?" he asked.  
  
"I don't think she made all those mutants all by herself. Some of the mutants, like Tatag, felt they were special because she had made them personally," Jen reasoned.  
  
"So, how does this help us rescue Wes?" Eric asked suddenly. Both officers looked at him, as if noticing he was still standing there.  
  
"There's no way it can help us," Alex said softly. "The teleportation device is designed to not leave any trace behind, so the officers can't be tracked and followed. The idea is that it serves as a form of escape."  
  
"And even I lost track of their thoughts after they teleported," Jen said. "Mind you, I could still find them, but it will take me a long time to search each and every place in the city, looking for Wes."  
  
"Get to it, then," Eric barked.  
  
"It's not that easy," Jen said. "You see, doing that might cost me my health, my powers and even my identity. I would go in and out of so many minds so fast I would stop remembering who I am, or I could even get lost and never be able to come back to my own body," she explained, holding Alex's hand. At the sight of Eric's face, she added: "I'm really sorry."  
  
"Well, sorry doesn't help us find Wes!"  
  
"But Tao does," Jen said, her eyes flashing. "And so does Buda."  
  
"Oh, great, let's all meditate!" Eric said angrily.  
  
"No," Alex said, his face also showing a smile. "Tao and Buda are two robots Trip made for us; they are better versions of Circuit, faster, smarter and smaller."  
  
"I'll wake Trip, he can configure all three robots to search for Wes," Jen said and she accompanied the words with actions.  
  
"Do you think I should tell Jessica?" Eric asked Alex.  
  
"I think she would want to know," Alex answered. "But I don't know if it's a good idea to worry her like that right now, she's had enough."  
  
*********************************  
  
Lying on her bed, with her eyes wide open and filled with tears, Jessica began to hear the noises outside, as if everybody was up again. What's going on out there? she thought to herself, feeling her heart shrink even more. She had a bad feeling.  
  
She decided to get out of bed and go out, to find out, or at least to ask them to shut up. Opening the door, she saw everyone was gathered in a room down the hall, where Trip and Lucas (she had heard their names at some point) were sleeping. She walked there, wrapping a robe around her well built body.  
  
"Yes, you have to try to find him as fast as possible," she heard Alex say. His voice, she noticed, was slightly graver than Wes's.  
  
"His life is in no immediate danger, because her life would be affected by his death, considering Alex's father wouldn't have existed either," Jen explained to them.  
  
"So, where shall we start?" it was Trip, or so she thought. She didn't dare to approach the door anymore, in case any of them saw her.  
  
"I think it's safe to assume she didn't take him to the ocean, so let's start looking in the three directions that have more chance. Buda you take north, Tao, south and Circuit, east," Alex ordered.  
  
"Are you sure we shouldn't alert Jessica, after all, he's still her husband," Eric commented.  
  
"No need for that," Jen said. "She's standing in the hallway." There was an exclamation of guilty surprise at her words.  
  
"And now you tell us!" Katie chided.  
  
Jessica was about to go back to her bedroom, when the door opened completely and Alex walked out of the room. She was startled by his sudden appearance, but she didn't run, because he offered her his hand.  
  
"Come in," he offered. She kept her arms folded and her eyes away from him. "Please, we didn't want to wake you," he assured her.  
  
"What happened?" Her voice was small and shaky. She already had an idea of what had happened, but she needed confirmation.  
  
"Wes was kidnapped," he told her bluntly.  
  
Her eyes flashed with fear and pain, but she swallowed her emotions fast. "Are you doing anything to rescue him?" she asked coldly.  
  
"We are doing our best," he promised.  
  
"All of you?"  
  
"Yes," he said, a sympathetic smile on his lips. "Jen is helping too."  
  
"Well, if anything new happens, let me know," she asked, turned on her heel and walked back to her bedroom where she locked herself in.  
  
After the door was closed, Jessica leaned against it, breathing hard and irregularly. Her husband had been kidnapped. What if he died? What if he died and the last words she had said to him where 'not now Wesley"? At least she thought she had a guarantee that Wes was still alive, and that was the fact Alex was still there. Hadn't they said he would disappear if Wes died?  
  
With silent tears running down her cheeks she sat on Wes's side of the bed and buried her face in his pillow for a moment. Her hand sought out a picture of them he had on his night table, and she caressed his face in the image, as she mentally prayed he was still alive and safe.  
  
******************************  
  
Wes heard voices. Voices he didn't know. Various female and several male ones. Most of them sounded like growls, like the voices of the many mutants he had fought. Only one of the females sounded human. His head was killing him. He tried to open his eyes, but his face was covered by a black hood, so he closed them again.  
  
He couldn't understand what the voices were saying, but he felt cold, and he also heard giggling. He supposed, as his reality and identity came back to him slowly, he was still in his underwear, and he thought, ashamedly, he must look like a sex slave there on his knees, with his hands tied behind his back and a hood covering his face.  
  
The voices kept talking and the human one, who sounded authoritarian, ordered something. He felt claws sting his chest as he was grabbed by the shoulder and pulled upwards, and more claws scraped the base of his neck and his cheek as the black hood was torn from his head. Light, strong artificially white light, hit his eyes through his eyelids.  
  
"Cute," said the human voice. He raised his eyebrows as much as he could, as if hoping they would pull his eyelids open, because they refused to open by themselves. "But my version is much better," the female voice continued. Wes felt her hand on his chin. "He still has many flaws Alexander doesn't have."  
  
Alexander? Where had he heard that name before? Oh, right, Jen's husband. His mind was still numb and his eyelids still refused to open.  
  
"How much do you know about your wife?" she asked in a cooing voice, as if she was talking to a puppy.  
  
Wes tried to talk, but his throat was sore and dry. "Water," he managed to plead, his numb mind only focusing on his main necessity.  
  
"Well, that's not much," said a childish female voice from a little further away.  
  
"Don't be stupid, he's thirsty," said another voice that sounded as far as the first one.  
  
Someone sighed in exasperation next to his face. "Get him water then." This voice sounded older and a lot less enthusiastic about his presence. Wes shuddered. He was really cold now that he was finally becoming more and more aware of his surroundings.  
  
"Cold, are you, cherub?" the same voice asked. He felt himself being wrapped with a warm blanket. "Sorry, I'm sure we could have found a much better moment to kidnap you, for example when you were dressed, but it would have been a lot messier."  
  
Kidnap? His mind repeated the word. Kidnap. Dressed. Kidnap you when you were dressed. He cursed softly.  
  
"What was that, dear?" the woman asked. He kept trying to force his eyelids to open, but they kept trying to shield his eyes from the bright light.  
  
"Here!" said the childish voice he had heard before. He felt a bottle, or glass, he couldn't tell, pressed against his lips and a big gulp of cold water was forced into his mouth. He swallowed, and it felt like glory. He thrust his lips forward, looking for another sip that was delivered quickly.  
  
Finally, now he felt considerably more comforted, his upper eyelids began to separate themselves from the lower ones. A small line of bright light hit his eyes directly as they opened, and he frowned protectively against the light.  
  
He felt a hand over his eyebrows that shielded his eyes from the direct light. "Open your eyes, cherub," the woman said softly. He tried again, with the protection of her hand he could open them some more. He focused his blue eyes on the woman near him, and saw she was in her late fifties, but she looked well preserved, young and energetic.  
  
"Welcome cherub," she said to him, when she saw him looking at her. "You don't mind if I call you cherub, do you? You see, I'm feeling kind of empty- nested lately." Wes shook his head no. As far as she didn't torture him to death, she could call him whatever she felt like. "Good. Now, you are going to stay with us for a while, so we want to make you feel at home, we don't want to harm you in any way, cherub. So, is there anything you need?" Her voice was kind, but the hairs in the back of Wes's neck stood on end; he could feel danger.  
  
And when his eyes got used to the light he could see the reason. He was surrounded by mutants! Female and male, monstrous and human-looking, growling and sighing mutants. All kinds of mutants, about thirty of them.  
  
"What's this?" he asked with a hoarse voice much unlike his own. "Where am I?"  
  
"Oh, where are your manners, children?" the woman asked the mutants. "Say hello to the cherub."  
  
"Hello, cherub," the mutants said in a child-like chorus.  
  
Wes was open-mouthed. He looked at the woman, scared. "There, there, cherub," she cooed at him, caressing his shoulder. "They are not going to harm you," she assured him.  
  
"What's going on here?" he asked, directly to her face.  
  
"We brought you here for several reasons, but the most important one is because we are all dying to know everything there is to know about your wife," she told him. Wes blinked several times, trying to get the information to sink in.  
  
"On your feet, cherub," the woman ordered him. He obeyed clumsily. "We need to find you some clothes," she pointed out. "I wish Nadira was here, she always knew where to find the best clothes!"  
  
Wes's eyes opened wider. Nadira?! he thought with trepidation, swallowing hard. "Well, now go and get some sleep, tomorrow will be a brand new day, cherub," the woman told him.  
  
"W-um-who are you?" he asked in a hoarse voice as he was taken away.  
  
"The mutants call me Mistress," she told him. "But you can call me 'Mom,'" she purred, kissing his forehead.  
  
Wes's mind got all numb again. Mom?! he asked mentally. He shook his head gently (it hurt too much to do it harder) and looked around, his mouth opening wide again when he recognized his environment.  
  
He was on top of the rebuilt clock tower.  
  
To be continued. 


	19. chapter 19

Chapter 19  
  
"Get some rest."  
  
"No, let me try a little more."  
  
"Jennifer, you said it yourself, this is dangerous, get some rest!" he insisted.  
  
Jen looked into his blue eyes, so full of concern and so tired. She caressed his cheek tenderly. She had been looking for Wes with her mind, trying to find a trace of him, a clue, anything. So far, she was having little success. "Give me five more minutes," she pleaded. He shook his head.  
  
"No."  
  
"Alex..."  
  
"Listen, you've had enough for today!" he chided, holding both of her shoulders.  
  
"At this rate I'll never find him," she complained.  
  
"That's why all three robots are looking for him, and so are the other Rangers," he said sweetly, but also forcefully. "You don't have to find him yourself."  
  
"They've been looking for him for a month now, Alex. His wife is desperate, not only personally, but also because of the business, it's really hard to keep this out of the press, or so she tells me."  
  
"I won't let you sacrifice yourself for him!" he almost yelled at her, his face dead serious and his eyes throwing fire.  
  
She was left open-mouthed for a few seconds. "What was that?" she asked in disbelief.  
  
"You said this was dangerous," he explained, taking deep breaths as if he was trying to calm himself down. "And I won't let you sacrifice yourself, or go through such danger for him."  
  
"Why do you keep adding the words 'for him' at the end of your sentences?" she asked, even if she already knew the answers. He had always been a little flammable when it came to Wes, and she was amazed he had managed to keep himself cool for so long. He was jealous, and it hurt Jen deeply, because jealousy was a synonym for mistrust.  
  
"You know why," he said hotly. "I don't want you searching for him anymore tonight."  
  
"And since when do I have to do what you want?" she asked him, her temper getting the best of her. She was so hurt.  
  
"Fine!" he yelled and got up from the chair. "Knock yourself out!" He walked towards the door. "And I meant that literally!" he added from the hallway.  
  
Jen was left there, sitting on the bed she had been sharing with Alex, a bed that had grown cold and mistrusting after Wes had been removed from the house, which, from where she was standing, didn't make any sense.  
  
Why was Alex so jealous? Why did he keep hurting her, doubting her? Tears began to run down her cheeks as she stared at the place where Alex had been standing. I love you, she told him telepathically.  
  
Here's a dime, was the answer she got. Call someone who cares.  
  
Jen buried her face in her pillow and cried hard. She wanted to know why her marriage was suddenly falling apart, when she and Alex had been so happy a month ago. She was hurting so much she wanted to wail, but she held back, she didn't want anybody entering the room and asking her questions in that moment.  
  
*******************************  
  
The next morning, Jessica stood on the terrace, her gaze lost in the gardens. The fresh air was caressing her face and the birds were singing, but she didn't feel like smiling, or like thanking the heavens for such beauty. She was sad and worried.  
  
And to add insult to injury, she was holding in her hands something that could trash all her plans. She loved Wesley, with all her being. But she couldn't live a lie, and if he didn't love her staying married to him would be lying to herself, and that was impossible, because she knew the truth and she always would.  
  
She heard footsteps behind her and hid the small plastic piece she was holding. Alex stood next to her, leaning on the handrail, his gaze lost into the gardens as well. Neither said much for a few seconds. Then he spoke, softly, as if he didn't want her to hear him.  
  
"Are you divorcing him?"  
  
Jessica looked at him and took a deep breath. He looked more like Wes than Jen cared to admit. He and Wes were more alike than she and Jen. At least, Jen had brown eyes, whilst hers were green.  
  
"Maybe," she answered in the same shaky voice. She was scared of saying the words aloud. As if speaking about it made it more real. "Why do you ask?" she asked before she knew what she was doing.  
  
"I always thought Jen had gotten over him. I was so sure of it, but now, I see her so desperate to save him, so worried, so scared. I don't think she was ever like that for me," he said.  
  
"Is she proving herself guilty?" Jessica asked, her index finger running up and down the plastic piece she was holding hidden from Alex's gaze.  
  
"I think I'm just trying to separate myself from her, in case she proves herself guilty. I love her so much, and I was so attached to her, to her memory, to the love we had, to our plans, to so many things about her when she broke up with me for Wes years ago. I suffered a lot, I guess I'm subconsciously bracing for impact. I'm half waiting--"  
  
"For the moment she tells you she wants to be with him and not you," Jessica completed, her gaze lost in the garden again. "I know how it feels," she admitted. "It's what I'm doing too."  
  
"You said you may divorce Wes," he began. Jessica swallowed hard. "What does it depend on, if I may ask?"  
  
"This," she said, showing him the piece of plastic she had been holding apprehensively for the past minutes. His eyes didn't flash with recognition, so she explained. "It's a pregnancy test."  
  
"You think you might be.?" he began.  
  
She glanced at her watch and then looked at the small square the plastic piece held. "It has two stripes," she said, her voice resigned. "I guess I won't be divorcing him. I'm going to have to live a lie." Her face was also stricken by tears. Alex put a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"No matter the situation, a baby is always something to be happy about."  
  
"I can't be a mother, Alex," she choked out, as if that fear had been stuck in her throat for days. "I don't know how."  
  
"Nobody does," he assured her. She looked at him, and he was smiling. "I'm sure you'll be a great mother."  
  
"What about you and Jen? Have you tried?"  
  
"For a long time. She got pregnant twice, but we lost both of them in early miscarriages," he said sadly.  
  
"I didn't meant to bring that up."  
  
"It's okay. From the way this is going, I guess it was for the best."  
  
"Alex," Jessica began, he looked at her, meeting her green eyes. "I didn't mean to fire all your doubts up. I really didn't mean to break you and your wife apart." She sounded mortified, so he held her hand reassuringly.  
  
"It's not your fault," he whispered.  
  
Then, the most unbelievable thing happened, those two cold rocks of human beings hugged tightly, as if grasping each other into the deepest, strongest friendship two human beings could have. They understood each other like nobody else did, and that bonded them, in a stronger way than anything else could. Still bound in each other arms, they both broke into torrential tears they had wanted to cry for a long, long time.  
  
**************************************  
  
"Breakfast, cherub," said a childish voice. Wes opened his eyes, and saw Fly-tag, the female mutant that looked like a butterfly, the one that had attacked him and the others in the hospital room. She was carrying a picnic basket in her right hand and handed it over.  
  
"Thanks, Fly," he said drowsily.  
  
He sat up and looked into the basket. Fly-tag sat in front of him, gazing dreamily at him. He smiled timidly at her. He had thought, in the beginning, that only The Mistress was going to call him cherub. He was surprised, not unpleasantly but not pleasantly either, that all the mutants called him 'cherub' as well. The female ones seemed thrilled to call him 'cherub' and they pronounced it in a dreamy voice, something like 'chehrub'.  
  
The male ones, and Wes WAS happy about this, pronounced it in a mocking tone. Fly-tag seemed to lead the Wesley Collins mutant fan club, and was always happy to bring him food, clothes, books or anything he needed. She also provided good company, although that thought was unfair, most of them did.  
  
Wes was amazed at the month he had spent captive in the clock tower. The Mistress had been faithful to her word, and had treated him nicely enough, and all of her mutants were obedient to her orders not to hurt him. But, as if that wasn't amazing enough, Wes had seen something he knew nobody would believe. The Mistress had tried to kill his wife, and her plan was to wipe one of his best friends from the history of mankind, but he had to admit she was very good to her mutants, as far as he could see, he felt more like he was in a boarding school with some really ugly classmates than the captive of a mad scientist who wanted to murder his friends in order to control the universe. Then again, Wes reminded himself, these were 'the children', as she often called them.  
  
He took a bite of the cheese sandwich Fly-tag had brought; he felt like a boy-band member, trying to eat a sandwich while his weird looking, winged biggest fan was staring at him breathlessly. He felt like he was about to start singing 'I don't care who you are, where you're from, what you did, as long as you love me.' right after he was done with his sandwich.  
  
He ate silently, listening to her talk about the news, which she watched every morning and was always happy to share with him. "And The Mistress has gone insane because you were on the news this morning." she said. Wes's head jerked up and he stared at her, surprised, his mind coming back rapidly from the imaginary autograph signing he was doing to a long line of mutant girls.  
  
"What was that?" he snapped at her. Fly-tag seemed hurt by his tone. After all, she's a butterfly, Wes thought.  
  
"You were on the news this morning," she repeated, her voice slightly bitter. "It said that you had been kidnapped, and not on a trip, like your wife had told the media, but also that the information was unconfirmed."  
  
Wes put his sandwich down. He had lost his appetite. Now that everybody knew he had been kidnapped, The Mistress was bound to do something harsher than the things she had done so far. He felt cold fear freezing his stomach.  
  
He was barely done thinking that, when the door opened and The Mistress walked in. Fly-tag and the other two mutants who were in the room rose to their feet. Wes was so dumbstruck by what Fly-tag had just told him, he forgot to stand up. Fly-tag kicked him in the ribs, and he immediately rose.  
  
"Leave me alone with the cherub," The Mistress demanded. They all did as they were told. "Well, reporters are insistent in this time period, aren't they?" she said, standing in front of Wes.  
  
"Some of them are, yes," he said. "What are you going to do now, Mom?" he had also agreed and kept his word on calling her 'mom'. It didn't harm anyone from where he was standing.  
  
"You don't know much about your wife's life before you," she said in a disappointed voice. Wes was getting more and more nervous. Jen had said the woman was insane and evil and he suddenly understood why they thought she had tried to kill Jessica. So far, he had been unable to truly believe it, even if he kept reminding himself about it.  
  
"Well, I only know what she's told me," he said.  
  
"You mentioned she had a sister, older or younger?" she asked.  
  
"I don't know," Wes said, like most of the times The Mistress interrogated him; he was just playing the 'I-don't-know' game.  
  
"Do you know if they look alike? Jessica and her?" she asked.  
  
"I don't know. I've never seen her; I've only known Jessica for about two years."  
  
"Sit down, cherub," she ordered.  
  
"Yes, Mom," he said, bowing his head as he sat, as he had been taught to do by the other mutants.  
  
The Mistress pulled a small syringe from her pocket. It was so small it looked like one of those preset vaccinations. She removed the cap, and Wes couldn't take his eyes of the tiny needle.  
  
"Side of your head, please," she asked.  
  
"What's that?" he asked her, deciding not to offer her the side of his head.  
  
"It's a new recipe, I've tried it with other people before, cherub, there's nothing to worry about."  
  
"What does it do?"  
  
"You are asking to many questions, cherub," the woman warned.  
  
"I just want to know what you are injecting in my body, Mom" he justified himself.  
  
The Mistress put a hand in her pocket and pressed a little button that popped out of the device hidden in it. Wes's gaze immediately lost focus.  
  
"Side of your head, cherub, please," she asked again. Wes turned his head immediately. She injected the solution behind his ear and waited for about half a minute. Then she pressed the button on her device again, and Wes looked at her, as if nothing had happened.  
  
"Is your wife's sister older or younger than she is?" she asked again.  
  
"Older," he said before he could stop himself.  
  
"Does she look like Jessica?"  
  
"They are twins," Wes's eyes were open in disbelief. Had she injected the substance in his body? He looked for the syringe and found it empty. She had.  
  
"Where does she live?"  
  
"On a farm, in the north area of the city," Wes admitted. A truth serum! She had just injected him with a futuristic version of a truth serum!  
  
"Thanks, cherub," she said, and kissed him on the forehead again.  
  
Wes sat there feeling miserable. Unwillingly he had just condemned an innocent woman and her children to death.  
  
To be continued. 


	20. chapter 20

Chapter 20  
  
Trip walked out to the terrace where Jessica and Alex were talking seriously. He was excited, and he ignored their mood completely. "I found something!" he announced. They both looked at him and smiled excitedly.  
  
"What did you find?" Alex asked.  
  
"Come to the living room, and I'll let you know," he said, leaving to call Jen.  
  
Alex and Jessica walked towards the living room, still talking about whatever it was they had been talking about. Probably Wes, Trip thought.  
  
Meanwhile, Trip knocked on Jen's door. She didn't answer, so he assumed she was asleep. Knowing she would kill them all with her bare hands if they didn't call her for that meeting, he opened the door, willing to wake her up.  
  
But Jen wasn't asleep. She was crying. She looked at the door with her red eyes and seemed to accept it was pointless to pretend she hadn't been crying, because she just sat on the bed, wrapping her arms around her knees.  
  
"Are you ok?" Trip asked, not really knowing what to say.  
  
"Like a million bucks," she answered bitterly.  
  
"What's wrong?" he asked.  
  
"My husband thinks I'm still in love with Wes, he mistrusts me and, as if it wasn't enough, I tried to read his mind, and he was talking with Jessica about divorce!" She said the last words with pain and began crying again. This time, not caring about anything, she began wailing in despair. "What am I going to do if he divorces me? What do I do with all this love? What do I do with myself?!" she asked.  
  
"Jen, I know Alex has been a little jealous of the attention Wes has been getting, and I know you've had some fights, but I don't think he's going to divorce you," he said, trying to calm her down, and failing miserably.  
  
"But what if he does?! What if he leaves me? He doesn't trust me anymore and he always told me he believed a marriage without trust can never work." She sounded really desperate and drowned in pain and fear. "I guess I'll have to go back to sleep," she whispered, almost guiltily.  
  
"No!" Trip said forcefully. "You don't have to; if you want to gain his trust back, falling asleep is not the way!"  
  
"What if I can't?" she asked.  
  
"Don't be so negative!" he told her off, but she wasn't listening to him anymore.  
  
"I never gave him children, never did. I don't think I ever gave him a reason to doubt me, I don't think he should doubt me, I love him, but why doesn't he believe me? What did I do wrong?" She kept asking all those questions in a hushed voice, her fingertips on her lower lip, pinching it softly, and then she would run a hand down her hair, only to return to the first position of pinching her lower lip.  
  
Trip knew the only way to get her out of that crisis was to talk about something else. "I found something that can help us narrow down the search," he commented. She looked at him as if she didn't understand what he had just said. "Wes, he's been kidnapped, remember, and I found a way to narrow down the search field."  
  
"Oh," she said at last. "That's good." She seemed to have gone temporarily insane.  
  
"I'll tell you what," Trip began. "I'll go and tell the others, before they start wondering what's going on, and when you feel better you can come and ask me, is that okay?"  
  
"Sure," she answered distractedly. "Perhaps a romantic evening. . ." she said; her face lighting up and she began to talk to herself about how good an idea that was.  
  
Trip left the bedroom and walked down to the dining room. They were all waiting for him there. Alex frowned when he arrived on his own. "Where's Jen?" he asked.  
  
Trip seemed nervous. "She's not feeling very well, I'll fill her in later," he said.  
  
Alex got to his feet. "I'll go and see what's wrong with her," he announced.  
  
"NO!" Trip yelled suddenly. Alex looked at him, puzzled. "I mean, this is really important, she just has a headache." He tried to fix his mistake. He licked his lips nervously, and Alex knew he was lying.  
  
"You can fill us both in later," he told him and walked out of the room.  
  
"What did you discover, Trip?" Jessica asked.  
  
"I don't know if you will understand, Jessica," he warned. "But I'll try to make it as clear as possible, if you have any questions, just ask."  
  
*************************  
  
Alex climbed the stairs and walked to the bedroom he and Jen were using. He was almost at the door when it opened. Jen was coming out of the bedroom, her eyes and nose red, as if she had been crying. She saw him and hesitated for a second before smiling at him timidly. Warned by the obvious signs of crying, he returned her smile, and moved forward to wrap his arm around her shoulders.  
  
"Are you okay?" he asked sweetly, caressing her cheek, still damp with her tears.  
  
"No," she admitted. "I'm hurt and I'm scared. I fear my husband might divorce me, and it just terrifies me. And I'm hurt because he doesn't trust me, but the big problem here is that if he doesn't trust me, then I can't make him believe that I love him, can I?"  
  
Alex couldn't find words for a couple of seconds. Then he turned to her and looked at her in the eye. "I had a chat with Jessica not too long ago," he began.  
  
"I know, you were talking about divorce," she said.  
  
"In the beginning, yes. But then, Jessica found out she's pregnant, and she decided to give Wes another chance, for their child. You are not pregnant, so there is no child forcing me to give you another chance." He stopped at the pained expression on her face.  
  
"No. . ." she whimpered. Then she jumped and wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could. "Please don't leave me!" she begged. She was truly desperate.  
  
It reminded Alex of those times when she had just discovered her powers and thought he didn't love her. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, returning her embrace completely. Not just the physical contact, but the love, the energy and the plea as well. "Jen calm down," he whispered directly into her ear. "I'm not going to divorce you," he assured her.  
  
"You're not?" she asked.  
  
"Of course I'm not!" he said. "I admit I did think about the possibility of this marriage not working, now that I was feeling so jealous and everything, but I decided not to. That's what I was trying to tell you, you are not pregnant and nothing is forcing me to give you a second chance. I chose to do so. But Jessica said these words, while she was trying to accept the fact she won't divorce Wes. She said: 'I guess trust is about jumping off a cliff, and knowing you'll fall right. I don't know for sure Wesley loves me, but I will never find out if I don't try. So I'm going to try, with all of my heart, and I'm forcing myself to believe in him, assuming he's telling the truth in all ways. I'm going to because I have to, for me and for my child.' Well, I don't have to assume you are telling the truth in all ways, but I choose to do so. I choose to give you a chance, to love you no matter what, because we are together in the good and in the bad and we met so casually I can't believe anything but that we were meant to be together, so I won't throw the happiest thing I have away for a stupid doubt. You love me? That's wonderful! You love Wesley? I'm honored you are letting me love you, and it's great too, pretending you love me back. At least it hurts less than being alone, and I don't want to hurt you, or myself, ever again."  
  
She looked at him, and then, as a form of answer, she just kissed him deeply. He returned the kiss as completely as he had returned the embrace. She caressed his hair and he caressed her cheek as they looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds, stabilizing their love. Then he smiled and hugged her tightly, kissing the side of her head.  
  
"Now, stop acting so silly, and let's find that kidnapped man, his wife has great news for him, and I'm sure he'd love to come home," he told her.  
  
"Let's find him," she said. "The sooner we find him, the sooner we can go back home too."  
  
"Trip had news for us, let's see what it is," he said and lead the way back to the dinning room.  
  
The grinning faces Alex had left behind were now grim. "What's wrong?" he asked, concerned, Jessica jumped to her feet and threw herself into Alex's arms. He hugged her. Jen raised her eyebrow with a playful interest and he just shook his head slightly.  
  
"She's going to get her!" Jessica wailed, breaking away from Alex and throwing herself over to Jen, who caught her and hugged her the best she could.  
  
"Who's going to get who?" Alex asked Trip.  
  
"Buda found traces of mutant DNA on the north side of the city. It's the same mutant that attacked Jessica and Wes in the hospital," Trip answered.  
  
"She's going to get Phine!" Jessica predicted worriedly.  
  
"Not if we can help it," Jen assured her, looking directly into her eyes. "Jessica, Listen to me. We are going to rescue your husband, and we are going to save your sister, I promise." Jessica looked at her, puzzled. "I make the commitment to you: I'll save them both," she promised. "Now, people, what are we waiting for?" she told her teammates. "Move!"  
  
*************************************  
  
Josephine Smith, now Mrs. Kevin Simmons, was sitting on a log in the corral, watching over a cow that was sick. She had just had her calf, and after the birth she had been getting thinner and weaker. Now she was lying on her side, trying hard to breathe.  
  
"Don't force me to sacrifice you, Marguerite," she told the cow in a friendly voice, caressing the animal's side.  
  
"Mommy!" she heard one of her beautiful five-year-olds yell as he ran to her. She got up and out of the corral, opening her arms to her running gift from heaven.  
  
"Come here!" she said as she lifted him from the ground and hugged him tightly, kissing his cheek lovingly.  
  
"How is Marguerite doing?" the toddler asked.  
  
"She's not doing very well," the mother admitted. "Leave her alone for a couple of days, to see if she gets so bored and gets so much desire to play again she starts feeling better, okay?" she suggested.  
  
"Ok," the boy said. "But won't she feel lonely?"  
  
"That's the point, she'll miss you guys so much she'll get better a lot faster! You can take care of her baby meanwhile!"  
  
"Ok, we'll take care of the puppy," the boy said as his mother put him on the floor.  
  
"Give me one kiss and go wash yourself, okay?" The boy kissed her on the cheek and ran to the house. Josephine followed him, walking calmly. She saw her husband standing in front of the house, smiling at her. She smiled back.  
  
"So, how was town?" she asked with a yell from afar.  
  
"Small and boring as always," he answered. She reached him and they kissed tenderly, his beard itchy on her face.  
  
"I swear, one of this days I'm going to shave you in your sleep," she promised, he chuckled.  
  
"I like your hair too," he commented.  
  
Unlike her twin sister, Josephine had short hair that grew in reddish orange spikes all around her head. The children had inherited her spiky hair, but not the color, and they both thanked God for that.  
  
"What are we having for lunch?" Kevin asked, opening the door of the house.  
  
"Jessica is coming," Josephine said naturally.  
  
"Did she call?" the man asked seriously. Josephine could forget that he was twenty years older than she was most of the time, but sometimes, it just showed so plainly, especially when it was related to her family.  
  
"No, but I can tell," she answered. In previous times she had felt Jessica was going to pay her a visit and she had never missed, the few times Jessica had visited her. Kevin let out an angry, disapproving sound, but said nothing. He just entered the house.  
  
Josephine stayed outside for a few seconds. Only as she was about to enter the house, did she see two black SUV's passing the farm's fence. She watched, but didn't walk towards them as they pulled up. She had the opposite impulse, the impulse to grab her children and run away. It scared her at first, but then it annoyed her.  
  
Jessica had brought trouble and bad news to her farm. Just like every time she visited.  
  
To be continued. 


	21. chapter 21

Chapter 21  
  
Frowning, Josephine walked towards the SUV's. Jessica was climbing out of one of them, followed by a man she didn't know.  
  
"Sica," she said tonelessly. She couldn't honestly say she was happy to see her sister.  
  
"Phine." Jessica answered the salutation with the same toneless voice. The custom of calling each other by the last syllables of their names came from their childhood, and even after they had grown apart, they kept calling each other that, as a memory of the two little red-haired girls who used to invite each other's dolls over for tea.  
  
The twins gave each other a cold hug. Jessica was very resentful of Josephine, and was envious of her happiness and her freedom. Josephine had run away, and had left Jessica to take her punishment for her. And not happy with that, Jessica had been the only contact with the family Josephine had had, and had had to help her sister in countless occasions, especially those regarding the health of their children or their cattle.  
  
Josephine was angry at Jessica since that day, when her children were around three, when an angry Jessica had told her father where Josephine was. Her father had showed up at their farm, calling Kevin a rapist, and their children bastards. He had slapped Josephine across the face, had denied her as his daughter and informed her she was out of his will for being an irresponsible traitor. The scene had taken place not only in front of the three-year-olds but also in front of their nanny, and some of the farm workers. That public humiliation, that had originated rumors inside their farm and in the surrounding ones, was still burning inside of Josephine and Kevin's hearts.  
  
"You'll have to wait for lunch," Josephine informed dryly.  
  
"I'm not here for lunch, Phine," Jessica said. Josephine looked at her puzzled.  
  
"What's wrong?" she asked, following her instinct. She stood straight and folded her arms, looking her sister in the eyes. But before Jessica could answer, a trail of smoke called for the short-haired twin's attention. "What's that?" she asked out loud. Jessica and the man with her turned and saw the smoke. The plume grew bigger and suddenly a second one, closer to the house appeared.  
  
Josephine ran to her house, yelling: "KEVIN!! Kevin! There's a fire!! There's a fire by the cereal field!"  
  
Kevin ran out of the house, followed by Mathew and Mark. "What?!" he called. Josephine pointed to the smoke. "Go to the house and call the firemen, I'll go and try to hold it back with Ritchie."  
  
"Come on," Josephine instructed, taking Mark (the smallest and weakest of her twins) in her arms. Jessica took Mathew in hers and walked behind her, followed by her personal guard, Eric.  
  
******************************  
  
Inside of one of the SUV's, the Time Force officers tried to make out what was going on outside. Jen's gaze was lost and they all stared at her. They could hear Josephine calling for her husband and making plans to put out the supposed fire that was burning in their cereal field.  
  
Jen snapped out of her stupor just as Kevin Simmons was running to the fire with another man. Both of them looked like the stereotypical cowboys, the ones who ran funny and dressed like country singers, with squared shirts and jeans. "That's not a fire," she said, opening the door.  
  
Alex grabbed her hand. "Jen, Josephine can't see you," he warned her.  
  
"It's one of The Mistress' henchmen, Alex," Jen said. He let go and they all climbed out of the SUV, to be greeted by Josephine's amazed stare.  
  
"Mr. Simmons!" Alex yelled, running to him. "Mr. Simmons, that's not a fire, wait!" But it was too late, an energy blast caught the floor in front of Kevin and Ritchie and they both flew a couple of feet away.  
  
"KEVIN!" Josephine's mortified cry broke the air and she started to run to her husband, but Eric grabbed her by the arms.  
  
"No, Mrs. Simmons, it's too dangerous, you have to get inside of the SUV along with your children and your sister, the officers will take care of it.," he instructed, pushing her towards the SUV.  
  
Inside the SUV, Josephine turned to her sister and slapped her, the best she could. "What the hell is going on?" she demanded, Jessica put a hand over her hurt cheek, but didn't answer. Eric started the SUV and sped away from the house. "Is there ever going to be a day you come to my farm and don't bring trouble?!" Josephine yelled at Jessica.  
  
Jessica lost control of her temper too and slapped her sister back. "We just saved your life, you ungrateful bitch!" she snapped before she could remember her two five-year-old nephews were sitting between them.  
  
"Mommy, what's going on?" Mathew asked. That seemed to cool both women down.  
  
"I don't know, honey," she said, holding him close to her body and kissing his head.  
  
"Is Daddy okay, Mommy?" Mark asked in his turn.  
  
"Is he?" Josephine asked Jessica, who just shrugged.  
  
"The officers will take care of him and will protect him and help him," she said. "Phine, you have to trust me this time, I wouldn't be here, taking you away from your farm if this wasn't important," she pleaded.  
  
"Explain to me what's going on? Who are those people? What happened to my husband? Who was that woman who looked so much like us?!"  
  
"Not here, Phine" Jessica said, pointing at the children.  
  
"They have the right to know what happened to their father," Phine insisted. Jessica shook her head and looked away.  
  
Eric watched both women on the mirror for a second. So alike and so different. They must have been close at some point in their lives, but now they were as apart as two planets. But what called for his attention were the tears that were streaming down Jessica's cheeks.  
  
Now, that doesn't match the idea of this woman I have. Perhaps Wes was right.  
  
*********************************  
  
The Rangers divided into two groups. Trip and Lucas went to help the two injured men and the rest went to stop The Mistress' envoys. They morphed and pulled out their weapons, ready to take down the mutant that was trying to get to Josephine and her children, but stopped in their tracks with surprise.  
  
It was Wes. He was morphed and he was accompanied by the butterfly mutant that had attacked the hospital.  
  
"Wes?!" Jen called.  
  
"I thought he didn't have his morpher with him anymore!" Katie said.  
  
"Apparently he does," Jen said, setting her weapon to the lower energy level, and standing in a fighting stance.  
  
"You're going to fight him?" Alex asked.  
  
"We don't have a choice," Jen said shrugging.  
  
As they aimed at the ground in front of Wes and the mutant, trying to stop them, The Mistress, wearing the same mask she had once worn before, appeared in the field for a second and teleported out, with both Wes and the mutant.  
  
Jen, Alex and Katie shared a look. Jen brought her morpher to her face and called, "Eric, keep on moving! Get to the manor as fast as you can!"  
  
"All right, Jen," he agreed.  
  
"Call the vector cycles, we have to move," Alex said.  
  
"No, we are using the teleportation system," Jen said. "Kevin Simmons," she reminded him. The rangers reunited by the side of the two men, who seemed shaken up and scared, but not hurt.  
  
"We have to go to the manor," Jen informed them.  
  
"What manor?" Kevin asked.  
  
"The Collins manor," Alex said.  
  
"I'm not leaving my farm," the man said stubbornly.  
  
"You don't have a choice," Jen said.  
  
*************************************  
  
"Why did you take us out of the field?" Fly-tag asked annoyed. "I've already kicked some Ranger butt!"  
  
"Not these Rangers' butts, you haven't!" The Mistress answered. Fly-tag sat sulkily.  
  
"Fly-tag, you and the others are my children. I don't want you destroyed or captured! Now you have to understand me," she said in a lecturing voice. "You are my children, you are young and untrained, you are not ready to face the Power Rangers."  
  
"How are we supposed to learn if you don't let us fight?" asked a male mutant that had a human-like look, with long untidy hair that fell from his head and around his shoulders and arms. However, if you looked closer, you would see that if Centaurs ever existed, he would be one of them.  
  
"Centauricon," The Mistress said sternly.  
  
"Sorry, ma'am," the mutant boy said, bending his front legs.  
  
"You will be trained in a different way," she informed them. "But before that we have to get you some trainers," she added. She turned to Wes, who was standing near two of the ugliest mutants of the group. "Say goodbye, cherub, you've served our purpose, and now you must go home."  
  
"You're letting me go?" the blond man asked surprised.  
  
"I'm trading you," she corrected him. To be continued. 


	22. chapter 22

Chapter 22  
  
"Wes?!" Jessica asked Jen and Alex, who had just filled her in, after they all got to the manor. Josephine and Kevin were upstairs, giving their children a snack and choosing a TV show for them to watch.  
  
"Yes," Alex said.  
  
"B-but if he was morphed, how can you tell?" the red-haired woman insisted.  
  
"No one but Wes and Alex can morph with that morpher," Jen explained.  
  
"What if it's a clone or something?" Jessica said. She was talking wild, off the top of her head, trying to find an explanation for her husband's weird behavior.  
  
The Time Force Rangers meditated on it for a second. "If it is, it would have to be created around the same time as me. Mutants grow fast, but clones grow as fast as the original. It would have taken a clone of me as long to grow up as it took me, so that's unlikely," Alex explained.  
  
"B-but why would Wes try to kill my sister?" Jessica asked.  
  
Everyone looked at Jen. She didn't return their gaze, she seemed lost in thought. It took her a little while to find what she was looking for. "She was controlling his mind, but not the same way I would," she explained, adding the second bit quickly when she saw Alex open his mouth to talk. "I doubt Wes would do this of his own free will, unless she threatened him with killing someone, or used a mind control device."  
  
Josephine and Kevin walked into the room. Their faces were grim, and somewhat angry. "All right," Josephine said shortly. "Explain."  
  
Jessica didn't lower her head or look away this time. She did the exact opposite; she stood as straight as she could, and looked at her sister menacingly. "Sit down, Phine," she ordered.  
  
Both Josephine and Kevin sat down on the couch. Jessica moved a lock of hair away from her face. "These are the Time Force Rangers," she began. "If you don't know who they are, I don't blame you. A month ago I didn't know who they were either, but they are here, and their mission is to save our lives, in order to preserve the future."  
  
She looked at Alex, but he nodded to her to continue. "Wes was one of them about two years ago. Anyway, someone from the future wants to erase Jen," she pointed at the Pink Ranger as she said this- "from history. And in the beginning she thought I was Jen's ancestor, but it turns out you are her ancestor, not me." Josephine straightened on her chair, obviously concerned about the bit of information Jessica was about to tell her. "This person is after you. After you and after your children."  
  
"And what are you doing to protect our children?" Kevin asked, grasping Josephine's trembling hand.  
  
This time, Alex did take over from Jessica. "We brought you here, and that's our first plan. This manor is protected heavily against mutants, and we are armed and ready to protect you and your children, all the way," he said.  
  
"We can't be away from the farm until this is solved! Our people need us there!" Kevin complained.  
  
"You won't stay here that long," Alex said. He gave Jessica a strong look. "You will stay here until Jessica solves the problem with the Silver Guardians."  
  
Jessica stared at him, shaken by his words. "How am I supposed to do that?"  
  
"Press conference, offer a solution." he said.  
  
"What solution?" Jessica asked.  
  
"It's your business and your job. Find one!" he said shortly.  
  
Jessica sighed. "I guess I'd better get to it now," she said and stood up, walking towards the door. "I'm going to Wesley's office, if you need anything you can find me there." As she walked out, Eric moved to follow her. "No, Eric, stay with Josephine and Kevin," she instructed. Eric bowed and stayed in the room.  
  
"Is there anything we can do for now?" Kevin asked.  
  
"Not now," Alex said. "You go upstairs with your children and try to rest and adjust. We'll tell you more as we prepare the new plan," he suggested.  
  
"But we have so many questions!" Josephine complained.  
  
Jen and Alex exchanged a look. "What do you want to know?" Jen asked.  
  
"Where do you come from? Why do they call you officers? What did you mean by controlling his mind, 'not the way you would?'" Josephine asked.  
  
"We come from the year 3004; we work for a crime fighting organization named Time Force and I'm a psychic," Jen answered tiredly.  
  
"One more question," Josephine pleaded. "Who is this person trying to wipe you out of history?"  
  
*******************************  
  
The next morning, Jessica was sitting by the poolside wearing a pretty pink bathing suit. She had her feet in the cool water, and she was lost in thought. Josephine walked out of the house towards the pool, wearing some clothes Jessica had lent her. She sat next to her sister, who had pulled her feet out of the cool water and was making circles with them.  
  
"Sica," she began. "What are you doing?"  
  
Jessica looked at her and gave her a small smile. "I'm doing some feet gymnastics. I don't want them to get swollen," she said.  
  
"Why would they get swollen?" Josephine asked, taking off her shoes and folding her pants legs up, so she could submerge her feet in the water too.  
  
"I'm pregnant," Jessica said, a smile taking over her lips before she could stop it.  
  
"Really?" Josephine asked. "How far along are you?"  
  
"I'm a bit over one month," Jessica said. "I already went to my first checkup and everything seems fine."  
  
"I'm happy for you," Josephine said.  
  
They smiled at each other for a second, and in that moment Jen walked out of the house, running to them with a smile in her face.  
  
"Jessica! We have news!" she said, stopping next to the twins. "The Mistress sent a communication to us, she's willing to free Wes, but she wants to trade him!"  
  
"Is Wes alive?" Jessica asked.  
  
"Yes, he is," Jen said, her smile growing big. "We are gathering in the dining room, to make a plan."  
  
"I'm coming," Jessica said, getting up and picking her robe and following Jen inside. Josephine followed them, not really sure of what to do.  
  
In the living room, Alex and the other Rangers waited for Jen and the twins. Kevin and the boys were still sleeping.  
  
"So?" Jen asked.  
  
"She wants to trade him for Ransik and Nadira," Alex said dryly.  
  
"What?!" Jen said.  
  
"She wants to trade Wesley for both Ransik and Nadira," Alex repeated.  
  
"We can't do it," Katie said.  
  
Jessica's face was filled with desperation and sadness immediately. "So, we can bring him back?" she asked.  
  
"Of course we can," Jen said. "I say we do it," she told the others.  
  
"You want us to give Ransik and Nadira back to The Mistress?" Katie asked.  
  
Jen looked at Alex, who nodded. "We can recapture Nadira and Ransik easily. I say we give them up and get Wes back, and then as soon as we can, we recapture them."  
  
"Or destroy them," Jen muttered under her breath. Trip looked at her knowingly.  
  
"No, we swore to bring them back alive, and you've got enough trouble with the ones you've already destroyed," Alex told Jen.  
  
"Aren't we operating under protocol 15?" Jen asked.  
  
"That's no excuse," he said with an authoritarian voice tone.  
  
"Sorry," Jen said. "So, when are we supposed to do the trading?"  
  
"In two hours," Alex said. "In front of the clock tower."  
  
"The clock tower?" Trip asked.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"That's one of the places I could identify," he said.  
  
"What?" Jen asked.  
  
"Right!" Trip said. "I never got the chance to explain to you two what I found out! Alex suggested that The Mistress might be using the same technology as the officer gloves, so I looked for the energy print of the invisibility shield, that's a gadget the officer gloves have that leaves whatever it is applied to undetectable by scanner and radar. However it leaves a particular energy print, and if you know this print, you can track it. She couldn't change the print of her invisibility shield. So I tracked it down, and found four places in this city that have their contents hidden from our scanners. The clock tower, which was rebuilt by Bio-Lab after Ransik blew it up, was one of them." Trip finished and looked gravely at his bosses.  
  
"She wants us to trade him in one of the places she's hiding?" Jen asked.  
  
"It might be heavily guarded," Alex suggested.  
  
"Or it might be a trap," Katie warned.  
  
"We'll be ready if that's the case," Alex said. "Get ready, pack your gloves and your morpher, drink only coffee, don't eat, it will slow your senses." He looked at Jessica and smiled reassuringly at her. "We'll get him back," he promised. She nodded, her trust completely in the hands of the officers who had saved her life many times.  
  
******************************  
  
The Rangers drove their vector cycles towards the clock tower, and parked in front of the building. The Mistress and her butterfly mutant walked out, followed by Wes and a centaur-like mutant.  
  
"Did you bring them?" she asked.  
  
Jen and Alex dismounted their cycles, and walked forward, each holding one of the requested mutants inside a silver container. "Here they are," Jen said.  
  
"Unfreeze them!" The Mistress ordered.  
  
"That wasn't part of the deal," Jen said. You asked us to give them back, and we have."  
  
"I want you to unfreeze them!" she ordered.  
  
"We are not doing it!" Alex said. "We are not risking ourselves, Mom," he said.  
  
"Centauricon," she said. The centaur-like mutant pulled a sword out of nowhere and placed it in front of Wes' throat. "Unfreeze them."  
  
Alex and Jen looked at each other. Let's do it. I'll keep them at bay until we get out of here with Wes, she told him telepathically.  
  
"Fine." He took Ransik out of his container and pointed his freeze blaster, changed the polarity, and shot the shrunk mutant, who grew back to his normal size and sprang to life, confused and angry, but completely tame, thanks to Jen's powers. She mirrored her husband's movements with Nadira, and soon, both father and daughter were standing in front of them, fully awake.  
  
"Send Wes to us or we'll freeze them again," Jen demanded.  
  
The Mistress made a movement with her head, and Centauricon let Wes go. Fly- Tag waved him goodbye with a saddened face. He gave her one last smile and waved back. Jen and Alex exchanged an exasperated look from under their helmets, and escorted Wes towards their cycles.  
  
"Morph and call your cycle," Alex demanded.  
  
Wes nodded and obeyed, and soon all of the Rangers were out of sight.  
  
The Mistress, Fly-Tag, Centauricon, Ransik and Nadira went back upstairs. The other mutants were waiting for them. "Children, say hello to Ransik and Nadira," she said. "Your new coaches."  
  
To be continued 


	23. chapter 23

Chapter 23  
  
"And there are times I just can't remember what happened, like blank spaces in my memory," Wes said as they walked to the house.  
  
"Well, if she was controlling your mind using a device that would make sense. If she had been using a psychic mutant you would remember doing things and being unable to control yourself," Jen explained.  
  
"Did I hurt anybody?" the red ranger asked worried.  
  
"Not seriously, but I think Kevin Simmons' pride is pretty hurt," Alex answered. They all laughed.  
  
"It's not funny!" Wes said. "What if she does it again?"  
  
"If she does it again, we'll kick your sorry ass," Alex said. "Sorry," he added still in a joking tone.  
  
Wes pointed at him annoyed and asked Jen, "When did he get a sense of humor?"  
  
"When you weren't watching, apparently,"  
  
"I'm serious! What if she controls my mind again?"  
  
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Jen said. "And now, I think there's a woman in that house who's just dying to see you again,"  
  
They entered the house in a line. Wes demorphed and looked around, waiting for his wife to welcome him home. However, she wasn't anywhere to be seen.  
  
"This is weird," Jen said, looking around. "She was so happy we were going to bring you back," she told the saddened blond man.  
  
"Really? Well, it looks like she found something better to do," he whispered.  
  
The door to his office opened and Jessica walked out of it, except she had short hair and looked at him as if she had never seen him before in her life. "Honey?" he asked uncertainly. "What did you do to your hair?"  
  
"You're confusing me with your wife," the woman snapped at him. "She's in the office," she explained and walked upstairs. Wes looked at the others puzzled and they broke into a soft laugh.  
  
"Um-- that was your absolutely adorable sister-in-law, Josephine," Alex explained.  
  
"Josephine? THE Josephine?" he asked.  
  
"Yes, Josephine Simmons, your wife's twin sister," his descendant assured him.  
  
Wes was still recovering from the shock, when the door opened again, and his wife, as beautiful, elegant and lovely as always, walked out of it, talking quickly over the phone. ".Yes, yes! I do! This very afternoon! Yes, I have. No, not for all of them, but we are trying.I checked with finances again.marketing suggested a reintroduction of the Silver Guardians now that the mutant attacks have restarted. We are not shutting them down, we are only resizing. We." she spotted her husband and was unable to keep a smile from her face as she continued to the person on the phone. "Have that conference ready by four; I'll explain later, I have to go," she hung up and stared at her husband with dreamy eyes, letting a sight of relief out, as she covered her mouth with her hand, trying hard not to cry.  
  
"What? No hug?" he asked her playfully, and she jumped into his arms, for a minute forgetting about his past with Jen, forgetting she was supposed to be mad, forgetting everything that had happened after that night they had conceived their child.  
  
"Wesley, Wesley, Wesley," she murmured his name in his ear with relief and clung onto him as if her life depended on how hard she did it.  
  
Wes didn't say anything; he just kissed his wife's hair. He had missed her so much, and he had been so scared she might be cold to him when he came back. "Jess, I missed you so much!" he said softly.  
  
She sobbed. "Never do this to me again," she told him, letting go of his neck and looking straight into his eyes. "Promise!"  
  
"I promise," he said, looking into her green eyes. "Nevermore, like the crow said," he added, drying with his thumb the tears that were falling down her cheeks.  
  
"Ok," she said, regaining control over herself. "I'll ask the maid to prepare you a warm bath, and the chef has to cook you your favorites. Did you eat well? Were you beaten?" she asked, losing control again.  
  
He put his hands on her arms, and kissed her forehead. "I was fed, and no, I wasn't beaten," he answered. "I'd love to have that lunch, though, and I want you with me in my warm bath," he said, pulling her close to him. "So you can fill me in, or vice versa," he added the last few words in a soft whisper that only she could hear. She giggled and looked at his face. He looked tired.  
  
She caressed his hair for a second and touched her lips to his. "Go upstairs, I'll be right with you," she said. He nodded and headed to the staircase. She walked towards the kitchen, searching for the servants.  
  
***********************************  
  
Alex and Jen walked out to the gardens after lunch. They sat near the pool, in clothes they had borrowed from the Collinses. Alex had a white tank top and a pair of jeans, and she was wearing a pink top with a black cotton skirt.  
  
They held each other's hands and made eye contact. They loved to do that, say it all without words, just by touching each other, and by looking into each other's eyes. Alex kissed her hand and pulled her near his body. She purred softly and let her husband hold her and kiss her hair. The physical contact was important for both of them.  
  
They sat on a bench, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and she began caressing his hands while she leaned on him, as if he was a comfortable seat. They said nothing for a long time. They just sat there, feeling complete and happy together. Jen kissed Alex's fingers, and he tightened his hold on her. "I love you," he said softly.  
  
"I love you too," she answered.  
  
They both fell silent again. They didn't feel like talking and they didn't need to. They felt lucky to have each other, and they took pleasure in even the smallest things. However, Alex felt he needed to talk. "I'm sorry," he said after a couple of minutes.  
  
"Sorry for what, love?" she asked, knowing very well what he was talking about.  
  
"For doubting you, for that stupid jealousy, for acting like an idiot," he said.  
  
"It's okay," she whispered, kissing his hand again.  
  
"No, it's not. I guess I was pissed off at Wes in the beginning, especially when I discovered he hadn't told Jessica anything. I stupidly doubted you, and I had no reason, because you got yourself in the mud and walked right through it. You confronted your mess face first, and that spoiled brat tiptoed around it, lying to his wife," he said. "Don't ask me how I ended up mistreating you if I was angry at him, but I did, and I'm really sorry," he kissed her hair and tightened his hold even more.  
  
She chuckled happily. "Well, it's in the past. I say we let that go and focus on the future," she suggested, turning her head a little. He smiled at her and kissed her briefly. Unsatisfied, she turned her torso as well, and they were able to share a loving, passionate kiss.  
  
Up in the terrace, someone was watching them with a bit of envy. Jessica stared down at the Drakes and couldn't keep her heart from wishing she could have something like that with Wes. She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see her husband walking to her.  
  
"The bath is ready," he said as he held her from behind. She looked at the Drakes again, as she felt Wes's warm breath caressing her neck.  
  
"How do they do it?" she asked. He looked at Jen and Alex, who were now embraced; he was kissing her forehead, as she caressed his hair.  
  
"I don't know," he said. "But I guess the fact Alex knew about the thing between Jen and me from the start helped," he went on, knowing he was stepping into dangerous territory. "I should have told you everything on our second date."  
  
"Second?" she asked, finally turning to face him, still trapped in his arms.  
  
"You don't expect me to tell you all that on our first date? Would you have gone out with me again if I had told you, 'you know what, Jess? I'm having a ball here with you, but I think you should know about a year ago I had the world's biggest crush on this girl that looks exactly like you, but I'm sure you don't mind, do you?' Yeah, that would have ignited your desire to go out with me every night after that."  
  
She had to laugh at that. "I guess when we first met wouldn't have been such a good idea, but you could have told me later."  
  
"I could have, but I was afraid," he admitted. She looked at him, puzzled. "I was scared you might throw that engagement ring in my face, followed by the glass of wine and an insult," he explained.  
  
She snorted. "I just saw that happening in my head," she explained as she broke into a happy laugh. "Sorry," she said trying to control her laughter and failing.  
  
"Stop that, I'm trying to make amends here! Not to mention I'm baring my heart to you!" he complained in a fake hurt tone that only made her laugh harder.  
  
She hugged him tightly and caressed his hair. "I missed you, you know? I'm no longer mad, I'm no longer cold, all I want is to be with you, to be happy with you, Wesley, no matter what," she said in a much more serious tone.  
  
"I'm glad to hear that," he said sincerely and they kissed briefly. "My bath is rapidly turning into a cold bath, you know?" he said pointing at the door of their room.  
  
"We'll warm it up again, don't worry," she said with a smile he returned.  
  
Hand in hand they walked into the bathroom, Jessica ready to let their problems disappear into the past, and Wes amazed by the warm welcome he was getting. It was considerably warmer than he had expected.  
  
*********************************  
  
Opposite to where Jen and Alex were sitting, the Simmonses were playing catch with some of Wes's old baseball gloves and balls. Mark threw a ball to his mother and she caught it expertly.  
  
"Where did you learn to do that?" Kevin asked.  
  
"Not from you, obviously," she answered playfully, at his clumsy attempt to catch a ball from Mathew.  
  
"Hey, I'm forty!" he complained.  
  
She laughed. "Now, that's a good one!" she cried.  
  
The twins began laughing. Their father shot them a fake angry look. "Did I hear someone laughing at me?" he asked. The twins yelled and started to run from their father, who began chasing them at minimum speed. Josephine just stood there laughing, until Kevin pointed at her menacingly and she opened her eyes widely and yelled happily and started running along with her children from her husband.  
  
*****************************  
  
Fly-tag sat down on the clock tower balcony, looking at the city. Centauricon walked to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "What's up, butterfly?" he asked. She looked at him with her purple eyes and gave him a small smile.  
  
"I was thinking," she said.  
  
"About the cherub?" he asked teasingly.  
  
"No, not about him, about Nadira and Ransik," she said.  
  
"They are here to teach us how to please The Mistress better," he said.  
  
"Yes, but is it right?" she asked in a whisper, as if she didn't want anyone to hear her. "Is it right doing as she asks us to?"  
  
Centauricon didn't know what to say. Bunnistein (the mutant that looked like a bunny put together by Doctor Frankstein) walked to them. "Hey centaur, give me room," she asked. "What are we talking about?" she asked the pair.  
  
"We were talking about the cherub," Centauricon said quickly, giving Fly- tag a meaningful look.  
  
"You miss him too, huh?" the bunny-like mutant asked her friends. "He was good company."  
  
"Yes, he was," Fly-tag muttered.  
  
"There's something you are not telling me," Bunnistein said, moving closer to Fly-tag and taking her hand in a friendly way.  
  
"She was wondering if we are doing the right thing by following The Mistress's orders. And I don't know what to say. It's a very good question," Centauricon said, putting his hand on Fly-tag's shoulder.  
  
"I think it depends on how you look at it," Bunnistein said. "She created us to follow her orders, so doing what she says would be right, because that's our purpose in life. But I think that from the human point of view, we are on the wrong side of the street."  
  
"How are we going to achieve unity and acceptance by being on the wrong side of the street?" Fly-tag asked.  
  
"We can't," Centauricon said. "I want to be accepted and I want to be useful to society, but we can't achieve that status, not from this side."  
  
"Then," Fly-tag began, holding her two best friends' hands, "We'll have to cross the street."  
  
"How?" Bunnistein asked.  
  
"By refusing to do as we are told."  
  
"The Mistress would kill us!" Centauricon said.  
  
"Not right now," Fly-tag said. "When it's time," she explained. "I say we take advantage of the training she's providing and then--" she was cut off by Centauricon's gesture.  
  
He had just run his index finger across his neck.  
  
To be continued.. 


	24. chapter 24

Chapter 24  
  
The Silver Guardians were all sitting in the room. Jessica took a deep breath as she walked to the stage in front of them all. The 'boo's began as she approached the microphone. They obviously knew it had been her suggestion to shut down the Silver Guardian unit. Jessica didn't let their booing hurt her.  
  
"I know you all think I'm the devil incarnate," she began. "I know you all think I didn't think about you and your families, that I only thought about me and my family. Well, you are wrong. I thought about you and your families. And I also thought about all the other employees of Bio-Lab, and their families, all the employees, from the members of the board to the people who keep our laboratories and offices clean. You, and they, were all important in my considerations. As you know, Albert Collins decided to offer the Silver Guardians as a free service to the town. When he made that decision, we could afford it. But now, we can't. I was forced to choose between you and your families, or all the employees of Bio-Lab (included me and Wesley) and their families.  
  
"If we didn't shut the Silver Guardians down, we would have had to declare ourselves in bankruptcy in less than a year. You wouldn't have been the only ones to lose your jobs, everyone would have, and we wouldn't have even been able to pay you for your services, because we couldn't afford it. You weren't the only ones to lose your jobs with this decision. Several of the projects were shut down; all the scientists involved in them were fired too. But I'm not here to justify my actions, for the simple reason that I don't have to. I don't have to explain to any of you why I did what I did, and why Wesley agreed with me. Truth is you work for us, and we have reasons to resize our company, besides you were all paid as the law demands. I want to state clearly that your strike is not what brings me here today, your so-called strike is no such thing, you were trespassing on private property, and illegally using our resources. You couldn't have a strike, because you no longer work for Bio-Lab. None of you."  
  
"What are you here for, then? To tell us we're all under arrest?" asked a rude man in the back.  
  
Jessica shot him a fierce look. "Perhaps," she answered. There was a general murmur of disagreement, and she could distinctively hear the words 'corporate bitch' several times. "Yes, I am a corporate bitch, you are all right!" she yelled. They all looked at her, surprised. "How stupid and blind do you think I am? Did you honestly think I didn't see this coming? I'm not Albert Collins, who only knew what his managers told him about his business. I like to see things first hand. However I'm not here for personal revenge, or to send you all to jail. I'm here to offer solutions to your problems, now that you are no longer a part of Bio-Lab."  
  
"Why not reopen the unit, now the mutant attacks have begun again?" someone asked.  
  
"We will," she said. The murmurs this time sounded excited. "But we can only afford to have less than a third of the men we used to have," she added. The murmur wasn't silenced, but it sounded like angry bees. "The rest of you, however, won't starve to death, as you all like to claim every time someone asks. You can all find other jobs. What we have chosen to do is to help you find them, and we have divided you according to your performance while in our employ.  
  
"We have reached an agreement with the Silver Hills Police Department, and they are willing to take up to one hundred of you in their ranks. The rest of you have been repositioned in different security and rescue agencies in the city, you will all be informed of this in a press announcement we will release sometime this week. With the help of Eric Myers we have chosen the hundred men who will stay with us, the rest of you have already been repositioned, as I said, in other security agencies. And before you ask, we took special care not to make your new salaries too different from the ones you had here. That's all I have to say, you will see more details in the press release, you can all leave." She began walking off the stage.  
  
Then a man stood on his chair and yelled, "Why should we sit back and be happy with that, when we can take legal action against you?!"  
  
"You can't," Jessica said to the microphone. "Yours weren't unjustified dismissals. We were resizing to avoid bankruptcy. And I have to warn you all that your love and sympathy were never really among my priorities, so you have one hour to leave all of Bio-Lab's properties, or we'll throw you all in jail, is that clear?" she asked, not waiting for an answer. She walked off the stage and out of the room.  
  
She walked out of the Bio-Lab building rapidly and got in her limo, followed by Eric, her perpetual human shadow. "I hope they don't follow that man's advice," she said curtly.  
  
"Would you really send them all to jail?" Eric asked.  
  
Jessica looked at him, her expression a cross between annoyance and amazement. "Of course I would! Without hesitation!" she said, in a tone that made clear it was the most obvious thing in the world.  
  
"Would you really do that? I mean most of those people have families!"  
  
"I would, Eric," she repeated. "I have a family too, and I have parents who would be ashamed and worried about me as well," she added, even if it wasn't all true. Her mother would be ashamed, but not worried, not really. "I would send them all to jail, and I would call all the news stations and papers so they would cover it."  
  
"Why?!" Eric asked angrily. He couldn't believe this was the same woman who had been crying about her sister in his SUV.  
  
"Because I have to protect what's mine! Wesley is too soft to do this kind of thing, Eric, but I was cured of softness a long time ago. Bio-Lab is my legacy, is what my father left me, Bio-Lab and Wesley are all I have right now, and I won't lose either of them. I'll do what I have to," she assured him.  
  
"I can't believe you! You're as cruel as all the mutants who are attacking the city, you just care about the money, about the business--" he began, but she interrupted him.  
  
"OF COURSE I DO!! I care about money and the company because the future of my children depends on them! My employees are part of that, but as their families are the most important thing for them, my family is the most important thing for me, and I won't jeopardize the future of my children, my husband and my home for them, because they are secondary to my own family!"  
  
Eric let out an exasperated sight, but couldn't find anything to fight that back. She had a point; he knew he would take the same position if Bio-Lab was in his hands, and if he had a family.  
  
They sat silently for a few seconds, then Jessica opened the mini-fridge and took out a bottle of water. She poured some in a glass. "You thirsty?" she asked him. He shook his head. She put the bottle away and took some sips of her water. "Wesley suggested to me yesterday to let go of all the resentments I have," she began, not really knowing what to say.  
  
"So?" he asked indifferently.  
  
"You and I had a bumpy start. I want to change that, because now you have to protect me, and it's not that I don't trust you, because I do, I just want us to be more." she paused, looking for the right word. "Friendly," she said at last.  
  
He chuckled sarcastically. "Friends? You and me? I don't think so!" he spat.  
  
"Why not?" she asked. "Look, I know I represent everything you hate, Eric, but you are my husband's best friend, and I want to be your friend too."  
  
"Not going to happen, Mrs. Collins," he assured her, stressing her title rather cruelly.  
  
"Can I at least know why is it we can't be friends? Eric, you are a valuable person, almost a member of the Collins family, and I am a member of that family too," she said in a soft voice, so unlike the one she had used on the stage with the Silver Guardians.  
  
Eric looked at her. Should he tell her? Would it make everything better or worse between them if she knew the reason they couldn't be friends? He discovered he didn't care, he would hate her for the rest of his life anyway. She would forever represent everything he couldn't have.  
  
"If Wes was married to another woman," he began, "and you only loved him from afar, what would you feel about that woman? Would you be her friend?"  
  
"I don't understa--" Her voice trailed off. She hadn't understood the question at first, but now she suddenly did. "Eric, do you love Wesley?" she asked, amazed.  
  
"Yes," he admitted shortly, being careful to avoid her stare. "But I never got lucky enough for him to share my tendencies or my feelings," he explained. "He was always a ladies' man in high school, and then when I saw him again, he had fallen for Jen, and when I thought he was over her, he met you. I wasn't sure I was, you know, gay until I met him. I couldn't get him out of my head, or out of my heart. Rumors about us began to run up and down the school and I had to leave, I had to leave because I didn't want to harm his reputation. I hid my true feelings behind a mask of indifference and hatred, I pretended to despise him for everything he was and everything he had, just so I could think about him without the shame," he confessed.  
  
He didn't know why he was telling this to Jessica Collins of all people in the world. He assumed it was because, besides himself and Wes (who would never find out), she was the only other person in the world who deserved to know about it. "That's the reason we can't be friends, Mrs. Collins. You have everything I want and can't have. Wesley Collins, the man of my dreams, is your husband," he said softly and looked out of the window.  
  
Jessica said nothing for a couple of minutes. She needed time for all the information to sink in. Her personal guard, and the man she had always seen as her husband's best friend, was in love with him. With Wesley. With HER Wesley.  
  
They pulled up at the manor, and Eric looked at her, his face slightly alarmed. "Mrs. Collins, please--"  
  
"I won't tell anyone, Eric. Especially not him," she promised and he presented her with a small smile that was rare in him.  
  
She climbed out of the limo and into the house. Wes was sitting in the living room along with the others, talking about their adventures when they had first been here, apparently.  
  
". And then Jen, if you'd believe it, sneaked out of the clock tower in the middle of the night, and tried to capture both Ransik and Fat Catfish at once, on her own!" Her blond, beloved man was telling the others.  
  
"You did?!" Alex asked Jen in disbelief. "You could have gotten killed!" he chided.  
  
Jessica stood in the living room doorway and gestured Wes to come to her. She had forgotten to tell him the previous night something very important. Well, her mind had been distracted with all the kissing and caressing.  
  
"Hey, baby," he greeted her. "How did it go?" he asked.  
  
She pressed her lips against his, feeling now more lucky and blessed to have his love than ever. "It went fine," she said simply. "I was thinking I forgot to tell you something important last night," she said, putting both hands on his chest as he circled her with his arms.  
  
"I can't blame you," he said sweetly as he kissed her forehead. She put her head on his shoulder and hid her face in his neck, breathing his scent. "What was it?"  
  
She lifted her head and looked at him, drowning in his blue eyes, as she smiled brightly. "We've been blessed," she began. "With the biggest blessing we could have been given."  
  
He looked at her, frowning. "What are you saying?" he asked.  
  
"We conceived," she said, not really aware of what she was saying. "That night after the attack at the hospital, we conceived."  
  
"C-conceived?" he repeated cautiously. She nodded; her face happy at his slow reaction. "You mean like a baby?"  
  
"Yes!" she said, laughing softly at his amazed face. "I'm about a month," she announced.  
  
He just stood there frozen for a second before taking her tighter in his arms and, in one smooth motion, he picked her up from the floor and twirled her around. "I'm going to be a father!!" he yelled happily. "We're having a baby!!" He put his wife down and ran to the living room. "We're having a baby!" he announced. The Rangers faked their surprise but not their happiness for the couple. Wes ran up and down the house giving the news to their housemaids and their butler, and also the Simmonses. Even the guard dogs got their share.  
  
Eric smiled politely and wondered out loud if Wes and Jessica could handle a child, but Jessica could tell he was genuinely happy; after all, Wes was happy.  
  
To be continued. 


	25. chapter 25

Chapter 25  
  
"Again!" Nadira yelled angrily, hitting Fly-tag across the face with her closed fist. "Five months of training and you are still as weak and useless as you were in the beginning!" she chided.  
  
"I am a butterfly!" Fly-tag complained. Nadira kicked her in the side.  
  
"That's a lame excuse!" she yelled. "Now do it again!"  
  
Bunnistein and the other female mutants regarded Nadira with anger. Fly-tag had gotten the worst of her, but they all had had their share of the pink haired mutant. Fly-tag kicked the Cyclobot they had been practicing with, and it didn't even seem to feel her kick. She gathered some of the anger she was feeling and kicked the Cyclobot, this time with an angry yell to match. The robot fell on its back, an electric shock running up and down its body.  
  
"That's enough for now," Nadira announced. "Get out of my sight, you worthless wimps."  
  
The young female mutants began to move back to the clock tower, and they met the male mutants that had been training with Ransik, on the way. Centauricon approached Fly-tag, who looked devastated. Her head was low and her shoulders were drooping.  
  
"Hey, butterfly, what's wrong?" he asked.  
  
"I'm a butterfly, Centauricon," she said sadly. "Butterflies aren't dangerous."  
  
"I think you can be very dangerous when you want to," he assured. "You just need to focus."  
  
"I don't want to learn how to be dangerous," she said.  
  
"You have to," he said forcefully. "Think about it this way." He bent so only she could hear him; he was considerably taller than she was. "You need to be dangerous to the bad guys."  
  
She looked at him smiling. "I think you're right," she agreed.  
  
"I'll tell you what," he began. "I'm a very strong and resistant horse, so how about I help you train a little extra so you can catch up?" he offered, along with his hand.  
  
"I'd love that," she answered, shaking his hand, which she didn't fail to notice, was warm and soft. Like his smile, she thought, and then blushed.  
  
****************************  
  
"What about that one?" Wes asked, pointing at a beautiful wooden crib, which was painted white and had beautiful carvings.  
  
"It's too elaborate!" Jessica complained, her hand instinctively running around her now big pregnant belly.  
  
Wes groaned. "They're all too simple or too elaborate," he complained. "Why don't you pick one?"  
  
She turned on her heels slowly, looking at all the cribs around her. "Look at that one," she suggested excitedly. Wes looked in the direction she was pointing and saw why she was so happy. It was the perfect crib for their baby, who now, in their six month of pregnancy, they knew was almost certainly a girl.  
  
"It's perfect," he commented aloud, putting an arm around his wife's shoulders. She turned her face and kissed him.  
  
"Let's get it," she ordered. "I want to take a look at the baby clothes before going home."  
  
"Don't you think this is enough for now?" he asked, kissing her cheek. "You should rest."  
  
"I'll rest the last month, when everything is set. Right now, we have to prepare everything, and it has to be quickly, we only have three months left."  
  
"Okay, okay," he agreed, looking around for an employee of the store.  
  
"By the way, the Brazilians want one more meeting before selling," she announced, changing the topic brusquely.  
  
"Now what?" Wes said tiredly.  
  
"They didn't say, but I think they are still uncertain about the contract. They still want to make some changes, but the people in Legal have advised us not to accept those changes, because they would affect us negatively," she explained.  
  
An employee approached them, and Wes began asking for the price and such of the crib. Jessica wandered around the store and found the baby clothes. She began to look through them, and Wes joined her a little later.  
  
"Look at this," she said, showing him a pretty pink romper-suit, with white collar. "Isn't it adorable?"  
  
"Yes it is," he said. "What about this one?" he suggested, showing her a minimal purple and white pajama.  
  
"Oh!" Jessica moaned, delighted. "I love it!" she commented.  
  
He chuckled and, as she kept looking at both sets of clothes, he looked at her. The pregnancy suited her. She looked more beautiful than ever. He walked to her and hugged her tightly. She rested her head on his shoulder.  
  
"I love you so much," he said.  
  
"And I love you, Wes," she said, surprising him the short version of his name. "I'm so lucky to have you," she told him.  
  
**************************************  
  
Jen pressed herself tighter against her husband's naked body, enjoying the different textures of his skin and the sheets.  
  
"I missed this," he admitted.  
  
"Me too."  
  
"How long has it been?"  
  
"Three months, two weeks and four days," she answered. "Not that I've been counting."  
  
"Of course not, why would you be counting?"  
  
"I wasn't," she said, closing her eyes. As she did, objects began to lift from the floor and land again all over the room.  
  
"Jennifer," Alex began. "What are you doing?"  
  
"I'm training, it's been a while," she answered drowsily. "I've learnt a couple of new tricks lately."  
  
"Which ones?" he inquired.  
  
"Well, now I can have a connection with several people at once, and keep them all sort of monitored, while following the most important one," she said.  
  
"For example?"  
  
"Right now, I have a connection with you, with Wes, and with Katie," she said. "But the one I have with you is the most important one," she added, kissing his chest.  
  
"And exactly what is that good for?" he asked drowsily.  
  
"This way I can know if they are okay or not. If I sense fear or tension, I make their connection the most important one, so I can know exactly what's going on and how can I help."  
  
"And exactly how do you know what's happening to them?"  
  
"With the help of my new trick," she answered happily. "Right now you are looking at the ceiling, with your eyes half closed," she explained. Surprised, he looked down at her to see if she was looking at him, but she still had her eyes closed. "And now you are looking at my face, because you want to know if I'm looking at you. I can also tell you are smelling the shampoo I used this afternoon, that you feel the sheets are cold, you are listening to my voice and to the fountain outside, and tasting a metallic flavor that was left there by the pill you took for a headache."  
  
"How did you do that?" he demanded, amazed.  
  
"My new trick," she answered simply. "I can experience the world through your senses if I want to. I tried for a little while we were making love, but it was too intense, feeling what I was feeling and what you were feeling at once. I almost lost it."  
  
"You never cease to amaze me," he declared.  
  
"Is that the eighth wonder of the world talking?" she joked.  
  
*************************************************  
  
Wes handed Jessica the sundae she had asked for. "I'm going to get as fat as a cow," she told him as she thrust the spoon in the ice cream and then brought it to her mouth.  
  
"You're not," he assured her, smiling. He also took a bite of his own sundae.  
  
They looked at each other silently, enjoying their ice cream, Wes throwing glances at the bags next to them every now and then. "I'll call Philips to come and pick that up, okay?" he said, and pulled out his cell phone while his wife nodded silently. "Philips? It's Wesley; we are in the ice cream shop at the mall, yes, the one I always go to. We have a serious amount of bags here, would you please come and pick them up?" he waited for an answer, said, "Thanks," and hung up.  
  
Jessica was looking around the mall distractedly. He touched her hand with his, to call for her attention. "Anything else you feel like doing?" he asked.  
  
"No," she answered absently. "Not really."  
  
"Is everything okay?" he asked, worried.  
  
She gave him a smile. "Yes, Wes, everything is fine," she assured him.  
  
How could she voice her fears of being a terrible mother to him, who seemed ready to be the best father in the world? How could she tell him she had dreamt of herself hurting their child? No. She couldn't tell him, he would hate her for thinking such a thing. But she knew she had to tell someone, or she would go insane.  
  
Her thoughts were interrupted by a great commotion around the bank branch in the mall. People were running and staring, pointing at the bank, and some women were crying in sudden hysteric attacks. Wes stood up and craned his neck to take a better look at what was happening.  
  
"Mutants," he said. Jessica moved to stand up too, but he held her down. "No, they haven't seen us, let's stay here and wait. Perhaps they will leave without seeing us."  
  
"Aren't you going to try to stop them?" she asked.  
  
"No, It would tip them to your presence here," he explained.  
  
"But, those people."  
  
"You are the most important thing for me, baby," he told her, looking into her eyes. "I'll call the others and they'll come, but I'll stay here, protecting you."  
  
She nodded. She was scared, and she didn't want her husband fighting these monsters.  
  
*****************************  
  
"Mutants," Jen said, getting dressed at full speed.  
  
Alex imitated her. "Where?" he asked.  
  
"In the mall, where Jess and Wes are," she told him, grabbing her officer glove and throwing him his.  
  
"Call the others," he said. She nodded, and put on her morpher and brought it to her mouth. "Guys, mutants at the mall, teleport there," she said.  
  
"Ok, Jen, on our way," Trip answered.  
  
Alex was studying the city map, finding the mall and the coordinates to it. He put his finger on it, shared them with the team, and they teleported to the mall.  
  
"Over there!" Katie pointed, towards the bank. They all turned.  
  
"Let's do this!" Alex called.  
  
"Time for Time Force!" they said as one and they were engulfed by their protective suits.  
  
"Let's go!" Jen ordered and they all ran towards the bank.  
  
**********************************  
  
"Very good," Nadira told the mutants that were carrying the money. "This worked out just fine, so far," she added.  
  
The young mutants threw glances at each other. Their orders were to rob the bank and leave. But Nadira seemed to have other plans. She made her nails grow and shot the guard an energy blast, killing him.  
  
"Now, it's your turn," she said, turning to the young mutants. "You," she pointed at Fly-tag, who threw a mortified glance at Bunnistein. "Get that woman over there," she ordered.  
  
Fly-tag just stood there, staring at the woman, who crouched away from her, terrified. She raised her hand, ready to shoot her, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. The Power Rangers entered the bank in that moment, and they aimed at the group of mutants. Nadira grabbed Fly-tag by the wrist and she shot the woman at last. The poor lady fell on her back, apparently dead.  
  
"Freeze! You are under arrest!" Alex yelled. Nadira turned to him and pointed at him with her nails, ready to shoot him, but Jen moved her nails back at her face.  
  
"I'd watch where I point those things if I were you," she warned the mutant.  
  
"We'll get them later," Nadira told her students. "Let's go," she ordered and they teleported away.  
  
Trip ran to the woman and Katie ran to the guard and began to check for vital signs. "I've got vitals!" Trip yelled, and pulled out the first aid kit of his glove.  
  
"This one is lost," Katie declared. "Somebody, call a doctor!" she pleaded.  
  
Alex moved closer to Jen and asked. "What the hell was all that about?"  
  
"I don't know," she answered. "But I think this is the result of what they have been doing for the past months."  
  
"Yes, they've been training," Alex said.  
  
"And they're not done yet, we are in for a long, hard fight, Alex."  
  
"They're in for an even harder one," he promised. "We won't let them win."  
  
"No way in hell," Lucas agreed. "I thought Nadira had changed, but obviously I was wrong."  
  
To be continued. 


	26. chapter 26

Chapter 26  
  
Jen and Alex walked around the mall, looking everywhere. Alex insisted on going out and enjoying the 21st century, which he had been unable to do the last time he had been there. After stopping the mutants that had attacked the bank branch they hadn't felt like going back home, so Jen had found the moment perfect to satisfy Alex's curiosity about the year they were visiting.  
  
"Look, over there," he said, pointing at an appliance and electronic equipment store. TV sets, VCR's, home computers, washing machines, refrigerators and other state-of-the-art electronic equipment were displayed inside it. Jen followed her husband, who ran to the store like a boy would run to a toy store.  
  
"Wow, they're so obsolete!" he commented excitedly, but in a low voice. "Look at the refrigeration systems," he commented, pointing at the back of a refrigerator. "No computers in most of the models, remote controls with buttons!!" He picked one up and showed it to her. "I mean, it has buttons! And look how thick it is!" Jen laughed softly, the remote he was holding was one of the slimiest, coolest remotes she had seen in the time she had been in the twenty-first century.  
  
"Well, you're looking at state of the art stuff," she pointed out.  
  
Alex moved to the computers. "What in the world is this?" he asked her, holding a mouse.  
  
"It's a mouse," she answered. "I think they use it to interact with the visual interface of their computers, they use--" and she lingered. She knew he would flip over this, being the electronics freak he was. Alex could put a computer together with his own two hands in less than two hours, another of his hidden talents. He loved everything that had to do with electronics, especially their history. To see a computer that was running 'Windows' as an operating system was bound to get him excited. "They use Windows," she completed, her face immediately showing a smile at his amazed face.  
  
"Are you serious?" he asked. "Windows?!"  
  
"Yes," she assured him, pointing at the card that described the computer they were standing in front of. "It says there this machine uses Windows XP v. 2.0," she said.  
  
"Wow!" he said, looking at the computer. "Look at the monitor!" his voice was excited and interested. He looked at her guiltily. "I've got to get myself one of these," he assured her, she just laughed. "With all the extra gadgets it can support, I have to have this in my collection, I could put it in the studio of the house, people would freak to see one of these, a working one!"  
  
"It's your money," she consented. Alex had transferred a considerable amount of current currency to them through Time Force.  
  
"You sure you don't mind?" he asked again.  
  
"Not at all, baby," she assured him, giving him a kiss. "Perhaps Wes can help you find a good store, you don't have to buy this one, there are stores dedicated to computers. I'm sure you'll find one that's just what you want." He smiled and nodded. "Even a Mac," she added maliciously and her words made him go wide-eyed and -mouthed.  
  
"A MAC?!" he asked as if a Mac was the most unbelievable thing in history. Jen just laughed and dragged her husband out of the store.  
  
*******************************************  
  
Jessica and Wes sat in the backyard, drinking some iced tea Philips had kindly made for them. Josephine and her kids were in the pool, Kevin was on the phone discussing farm business, and the other officers were scattered. She knew Jen and Alex were out, and Eric was standing near her and Wes, accompanied by the other member of their guard.  
  
She straightened her back for a little and then returned her attention to the report from Finances. The reintroduction of the Silver Guardians seemed risky, but after what she had seen that morning it was bound to be a success. She threw her husband a glance, and noticed he was submerged in a report from Dr. Zaskin's laboratory.  
  
The report was filled with a lot of useless information, but the overall look seemed interesting. Marketing hadn't yet sent their report, and she noticed, with a bit of relief, she was done for the day with her vice- president duties. Now she could dedicate the rest of the day to being a wife and a mother-to-be. The thought of her baby brought some horrible images to her mind, and she shook them away, with a movement of her head that made Wes look up at her.  
  
"You all right?" he asked softly, taking her hand in his and giving it a gentle squeeze.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine," she lied with a smile. "Are you done?"  
  
"Not yet, but I can leave it for later if you feel like snuggling," he offered, putting the report down and moving to her.  
  
"That'd be great," she said, and they kissed.  
  
"What do you feel like having done to you today? Foot rub?" he asked.  
  
"No, just run your fingers through my hair the way I like it so much," she pleaded. He stood behind her and ran his fingers down her soft and silky red hair. She purred happily as he continued the caress. "I want to talk to you about something," she began. He didn't stop his caressing.  
  
"About what?"  
  
"About you and the other Time Force officers. What exactly happened between you and Jen?" her question made him stop and sit next to her.  
  
"It was a crush," he assured her.  
  
"I know, but I want to know what happened. How did you develop it? How did you meet all of them? How did you become the Red Ranger?"  
  
"Okay," he began and raised an eyebrow as she put one of her bare feet on his lap. "It was an unexpected event, in a normal day. When I left the house that day I sure as hell didn't know I was going to save the life of a woman from some weird robots, and that I was going to fight them again later that day wearing a futuristic armor. No one could have been more surprised about my friendship with the Time Force officers than me."  
  
And so he began a story that took him about an hour, he told her everything about his adventures as a Ranger, from the day he had called Jen crazy to the day he had told her he loved her. Jessica listened to the story with interested, posing a question every now and then.  
  
"And then I was the leader of the Silver Guardians along with Eric for about a year, until Dad died. A week later I met you, and only a few weeks after that, I already loved you for who you are, and for how much you care about me." He finished his story with a smile, after rubbing both of her feet.  
  
"You don't mind if I talk to Jen, do you?" she asked carefully. "About this whole thing."  
  
"Not at all," he said, kissing her cheek. "We've got nothing to hide. Can I get back to my report now?"  
  
"No," she pouted. "I feel like soaking in the pool, care to join me?" she asked.  
  
"I'd love to," he said, leaping to his feet and helping her up from the chair. "There's something I've been wanting to tell you."  
  
"If you're going to tell me I look like a truck--"  
  
"Pregnancy suits you, you look more beautiful than ever," he said, interrupting her. She smiled and he kissed her. "If that's possible."  
  
"You are impossible, Mr. Collins," she told him, rubbing her nose against his. "You are adorably impossible."  
  
**********************************  
  
"What are your thoughts on the mutants?" Jen asked Alex as they walked back to the house.  
  
"Like you didn't know," he answered playfully.  
  
"I don't spend all my life reading your mind, Alex; I'm not that insecure."  
  
"I didn't mean that," he said, holding her hand tenderly. "I just thought perhaps you already had."  
  
"No I haven't," she said forcefully.  
  
"You know what really bugs me?" he asked.  
  
"That you couldn't buy that computer today?"  
  
"Besides that," he said matter-of-factly. "The whole thing with the posed bodies. We never knew what they were posed to look like."  
  
"I always thought they were messages," Jen theorized. "You know, messages that only one person in particular could decipher."  
  
"But a message for whom? Saying what? The pose of that doctor we found and his wife, it keeps haunting me, I know in the back of my head I've seen that image somewhere before, but I can't place it."  
  
"I know how that feels," she said. "I've had the same feeling all along."  
  
They fell silent for a few minutes then Jen smacked her forehead with her hand. "We have to hurry! Tonight is the dinner for Josephine and her family, remember? They leave tomorrow."  
  
"Right, we'd better hurry," he agreed peacefully.  
  
"What are we waiting for?" she asked. He looked at her with one of his playful looks, with a smile to match.  
  
"Race you to the manor," he dared her.  
  
"Bring it on," she answered and they both began running to the house that was only a block away, past the gardens.  
  
**********************************  
  
Fly-tag and Centauricon were alone at the top of the clock tower, facing each other. "Ok, I want you to give me your best shot," he said.  
  
She nodded nervously and stood in a fighting stance. She threw a punch at him, but he blocked it. She tried again, but he kept blocking her moves. Finally, he pushed her away and she landed hard on her back.  
  
She got to hands and knees and punched the floor with her fists angrily. "I'm never going to get it right!" she complained.  
  
"Hey, it'll be all right," Centauricon said.  
  
"I'll make sure of that myself," said another voice that made them both look up. The Mistress was standing in the door, behind her stood Nadira and her father. Ransik was holding Bunnistein by the arm with one of his big hands.  
  
When The Mistress walked in, he threw the rabbit-like mutant towards her friends as he walked in followed by his daughter and the rest of the young mutants. A male mutant that had a rocky body moved towards Bunnistein and helped her up tenderly, wrapping an arm around her waist when she was up. Ransik moved towards Fly-tag who was still on her knees. She looked at him, scared, and he wrapped his powerful hand around her thin arm.  
  
"Ouch! Let go!" the butterfly complained trying to pull herself from his grasp.  
  
Ransik's laughter sounded like a growl to her ears. "Make me," he dared. She looked at Centauricon, but he was being held back helplessly by two stronger mutants. Fly-tag turned, trying to catch a glimpse of Ransik's face with her violet eyes. His breath, that didn't smell very good, caught her nose and she turned back to The Mistress.  
  
"Nadira told me about the cowardly stunt you played at the bank," The Mistress began, walking in front of Fly-tag like a caged animal. Fly-tag shook her head, scared, and threw Nadira a demanding glance. "She said you refused to follow orders. What do you have to say to that?"  
  
"I don't understand," Fly-tag began with a broken voice. "Our orders were to break into the bank and rob it, those were the orders you gave us, I followed them."  
  
"Don't play stupid, Fly-tag," Nadira snapped. "You know what I'm talking about very well."  
  
Fly-tag shook her head. She did know what Nadira was talking about, but was determined to deny it as long as she could.  
  
"Nadira ordered you to shoot a woman, did she not?" The Mistress asked.  
  
"She did, but the woman was no threat to us--" she began and she knew she had said the wrong thing when The Mistress hit her across the face with her fist. Centauricon struggled against the mutants holding him back.  
  
"Since when does it matter if humans pose a threat to you or not, Fly-tag? You were ordered to shoot her, why didn't you?" the woman demanded.  
  
"I did shoot her," the young mutant said. "I did shoot her!"  
  
"When Nadira forced you to!" The Mistress sounded really angry. "I don't appreciate it when my mutants don't follow my orders, Fly-tag."  
  
"With all due respect, I did follow your orders, ma'am. Your orders didn't include us killing humans, just robbing a bank," the young violet-eyed mutant answered defiantly.  
  
The Mistress hit her across the face again. "Didn't I order you to follow ALL of Ransik and Nadira's orders, Fly-tag?" she asked angrily.  
  
"You did, ma'am," Fly-tag admitted with her head bowed, her nose bleeding.  
  
"Good," The Mistress began, looking around at all of her mutants. "This shall serve as an example to all of you who are planning on disobeying Ransik or Nadira. Fly-tag, you are from now until further notice forbidden to fly," she said. Fly-tag nodded, her face covered in tears and blood. "And we have to make sure you don't fly, so, Nadira if you would."  
  
Nadira smiled and made her nails grow. Ransik took a stronger hold on Fly- tag as she began squirming in his grasp again, as Nadira approached her, her nails shinning in the artificial light. Centauricon struggled even harder against his holders, and Bunnistein struggled to get free from the hold she was also trapped in. Nadira took the border of Fly-tag's wing and pulled it almost tenderly.  
  
"No! Fly-tag!" Centauricon called, struggling hard until he got hit in the face by another of The Mistress's faithful mutants.  
  
"What are you doing?!" Fly-tag yelled squirming as hard as she could in Ransik's grasp. "NO, PLEASE!!!" she begged. Nadira caressed her tearful face in a mocking gesture and thrust her nails into Fly-tag's delicate wing, tearing it. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" the poor youngster yelled as her friends tried to free themselves.  
  
Bunnistein's companion hugged her pressing her face into his chest so she wouldn't see. Centauricon stood there, barely conscious. Blood poured from Fly-tag's wing as screams of pain poured from her mouth. Nadira repeated the operation on her other wing and Ransik let her go. The mutant fell to her knees in pain, her wings twitching involuntarily. She looked more than ever like a butterfly, a wounded butterfly to be exact.  
  
She lay there crying while her wings bled. The Mistress approached her and injected something in her neck, and then she and her escort left the room, leaving only Fly-tag, Centauricon, Bunnistein and the rocky mutant, whose name was Boulderac.  
  
"Fly-tag, are you all right?" Centauricon asked, bending his four legs to kneel next to his friend. He caressed her hair even though he knew it did little to take her pain away. Bunnistein, who was crying herself, fetch the first aid kit and moved forward to help her friend.  
  
"Centauricon, help me, please," she asked, handing him a ball of cotton soaked in a healing liquid. "Put this around the tear," she ordered. With trembling hand, the boy-horse followed her orders. Fly-tag had just fainted.  
  
"This was very cruel," Boulderac said angrily, as he put healer on the butterfly's wings.  
  
"Not just cruel," Bunnistein said. "It was unnecessary."  
  
"Don't worry, Fly-tag," Centauricon muttered, caressing his friend's face. "She'll pay for this," he promised.  
  
Fly-tag's violet eyes opened slightly and she smiled at the centaur's brown gaze. "Centauricon," she muttered numbly.  
  
"It's okay, now," he assured her, holding her hand.  
  
"It hurts," she moaned.  
  
"We'll make her pay," the horse said.  
  
"Of course we will," the bunny supported.  
  
"That's a promise, butterfly," Boulderac added.  
  
To be continued. 


	27. chapter 27

Chapter 27  
  
Josephine sat in the living room, getting ready to go back to her farm. Jessica approached her quietly and sat down next to her. Josephine looked at her and smiled slightly. She had been living with her sister for a few months now, and they had grown slightly closer, but not enough.  
  
"I wanted to talk to you before you left," Jessica said.  
  
"I hear you," Josephine answered, not looking at her sister.  
  
"I want us to act like sisters again, Phine. I miss you," the pregnant twin said. Her sister looked at her, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"How is that supposed to happen, Sica? After all these years?"  
  
"I've been sulking, all wrapped up in my side of the story, Phine. The side of the story I was told, the one mother and father wanted me to know, but I want to change that now. I want to hear your side," Jessica asked.  
  
Josephine looked at her for a few seconds. "You actually want to hear what I've got to say?" she asked in disbelief.  
  
"You never told me anything about you and Kevin, I never knew until you ran away. I want you to tell me everything, how you two met, how you fell in love, you know, everything," Jessica assured her.  
  
"Okay," Phine agreed. "This might take some time."  
  
"I have plenty."  
  
Phine nodded. "You remember my friend Andrew? That blue eyed boy who had a crush on me, but I never actually liked?"  
  
"Yes, he drooled over you like a puppy, but you never looked at him as anything but a friend," Jessica said, remembering the boy clearly. He had been a classmate of both of them, but he had had a crush on Josephine, and had befriended her, not Jessica.  
  
"He's my stepson. And he's actually older than me by a couple of months," Josephine commented with a face that stated clearly just how weird she knew that had sounded. "Man, my relationship with my husband is certainly a strange one, isn't it? No wonder no one ever approved of it."  
  
"Yeah, well, you DO have a slight age difference between you," Jessica commented with a slight laugh which Josephine echoed.  
  
"Anyway, Andrew told me his parents were divorced, we were sixteen back then, almost seventeen. So, Andrew told me to meet him at his father's house one weekend because we had to work on a report for science. That was the day I met Kevin." Josephine's eyes had been invaded by a glow at the memory of the first time she had seen the man who now was her husband.  
  
"It was like a bolt of electricity running through my body when I saw him. His eyes, so bright and warm, and his smile, I felt like every single thing that had ever scared me or hurt me had just vanished from existence when I saw his smile." Her voice had grown passionate as well, and Jessica was amazed at how much her sister loved her husband. She had doubted their love for years, she had always doubted they had loved each other truly until she had gotten pregnant, but now the businesswoman had to admit her sister had always loved Kevin Simmons, truly and deeply. And not just that, he had loved her back with the same intensity.  
  
"Andrew had no idea of what he had just done, but he had introduced me to the man of my dreams. Kevin is so incredibly handsome for a man his age, in such good shape, and those green eyes, and that light brown hair, he's the man of my dreams." Josephine smiled foolishly at her sister. "Well, Kevin and I discovered we had so much in common, we talked for hours, which made Andrew incredibly uncomfortable, and when I left their house that day I felt like I was flying, I was excited, my heart was racing, my head too. I just wanted to see Kevin again, and back then, I was far from knowing he couldn't wait to see me again either, but he couldn't."  
  
"When did you begin a romantic relationship?" Jessica asked, interested.  
  
"About six months after we met. We had been 'friends', if you care to call it that, for that long. Our relationship, and the romantic tension between us, grew exponentially during those months. Again, Andrew asked me to go to his father's house one Saturday. I went, but Andrew wasn't there, so Kevin said I could go in and wait for him, after all, we had been alone together several times. By alone I mean without Andrew, we usually met in public places, and talked about horses, or interesting books or anything. That Saturday, however, we were truly alone, him and me. And we sat down on his couch and talked about everything we could think of, but we soon ran out of topics, and began staring into each other's eyes. All I wanted was to tell him that I loved him, that I did nothing but think about him, that he was my ground and my skies, but I feared making things awkward between us and losing him completely. But a miracle happened!" Josephine's face was showing a pleased, happy smile.  
  
"We just looked into each other's eyes, not really noticing we were getting closer and closer, and then, next thing we knew, we were kissing, deeply and lovingly. When we broke apart, he whispered, 'Jossie, I can't hide this anymore. I love you,' and I was breathless, unable to believe what was happening to me. I distinctly remember saying, 'I love you too, Kevin, I have for a long time,' and then it was just more kisses and a tight hug and then more kisses and more sweet words. Now that I knew I had him, now he knew I loved him and now I knew he loved me back, I just had the certainty of being unable to live without my Kevin anymore. I didn't care about his age, I didn't care his son was my classmate, all I cared about was kissing him, holding his hand, listening to his voice and feeling his gaze on me. Against everything everyone seemed to think, Kevin and I did love each other back then."  
  
"When did your relationship become sexually active? Josephine, why did you run away? What happened?" Jessica asked.  
  
"Kevin and I dated for months, but we weren't sexually active, I was underage, and I didn't want to get him in trouble, in case someone knew about us making love. I have to admit we did get to second base a couple of times, we were so addicted to each other it was hard for us to hold back, but we did. The day after our eighteenth birthday I visited Kevin, desperate to be with him and feeling so free to be his, to be with him. I was of age now, and he knew it, because Andrew, who still didn't know about us, had been at our party. That was the day I became Kevin's woman. And he became my man, and that was it.  
  
"We were through with people saying our relationship was unethical, that we shouldn't be together. I was a woman and he was a man, and we were in love. So what if he's twenty years older than me? I don't care, all I care about is how much he loves me and cares about me."  
  
Josephine's voice let out a trace of bitter anger Jessica didn't miss. She put a hand on her sister's shoulder and smiled at her, letting her know she understood the ways of love now, and understood how she had felt. "Like I said, Kev and I were addicted to each other, and our relationship grew tighter and better in the months that followed the sexual awakening of our love. Andrew found out about us, and he made a fuss, shouting that I was a slut and that his father was a girl-stealer. We couldn't make him understand that we loved each other."  
  
"How did he find out?" Sica asked, interested.  
  
"He had seen the engagement ring his father had, and had asked him who the girl he was going to propose to was, and why he had kept her a secret. Kevin refused to answer, but when he proposed and I said yes, I was decided not to take the ring off my finger ever again. Andrew saw me wearing it, and it wasn't hard for him to do the math."  
  
"Wait a sec," Jessica interrupted bluntly. "He proposed to you before you got pregnant?"  
  
"Yes," Josephine answered, smiling. "Nobody knows this, because nobody ever bothered to ask, but Kevin and I were going to get married even before I got pregnant. When I found out I was expecting, I thought I had blown it, but he hugged me tightly and said that now we could start our own family, together. We ran away because we knew that if we got married and went out into the open near Father, he was bound to take legal action against Kev, and he was also bound to bribe his way into winning a trial, and sending my beloved man to jail. So we ran, Kev already had the farm on the North side, we had been there before, and so we moved there, we got married in Turtle Cove and moved to our farm, where we had and raised our children."  
  
Josephine finished her story and gave her sister an apologetic look. "Jess, I'm sorry for everything Mother and Father made you go through after I left, but I couldn't risk losing Kevin or my children, I would have died!" Her eyes were suddenly filled with tears her twin sister wasted no time in wiping away.  
  
"I understand now, Phine," Jessica said, smiling. "You loved each other so much, I understand you ran away to stay together. I think you would have died if Kevin had been taken from you. Besides, everything turned out the way it was supposed to, you have Kevin, and if you hadn't run, I wouldn't have been the vice-president of Bio-Lab and I wouldn't have met Wesley. Everything is the way it's supposed to be, and, in the end, it's a happy ending."  
  
"It is," Josephine agreed, smiling. "Kevin tends to overprotect me, he sometimes goes all paternal on me, and that just drives me crazy. I want us to have a girl, so he can have an actual daughter and leave me alone in that way."  
  
"How do you deal with the age difference?"  
  
"What age difference? We don't pay attention to that. Age is just numbers, and numbers aren't real. Our love is the only thing we care about, being together, loving each other, raising our twin menaces. Age has never been a conflict between us, and I'm sure it never will be," Josephine concluded just in time. Entering through the living room door were both Wes and Kevin. Josephine turned to her sister and whispered secretly "I don't think I could be half as happy with someone my own age as I am with Kevin."  
  
"I know," Jessica whispered back and they both giggled.  
  
"What's with the giggling?" Kevin asked. "No wife of mine giggles like a silly bimbo," he complained mockingly, pulling his wife to her feet by her hands and drawing her close to him, kissing her and holding her in his big, strong arms. Josephine buried her face in his neck, feeling nothing but complete in her husband's arms.  
  
Wes helped Jessica to her feet and she kissed him softly on the cheek. "There are two more people I need to talk to," she said.  
  
"Who?" he asked.  
  
"Jen, and Mother," she answered. "I want to set everything straight with her."  
  
"You forgot someone very important," he mentioned. She looked at him puzzled and he whispered. "Your father. You should both go and visit his grave before Josephine goes back to the farm."  
  
The green-eyed women looked at each other, and nodded. They needed to tell their father a lot of things, some good, some bad, but all of them needed to be said.  
  
"You don't mind, do you?" Josephine asked her husband, who shook his head.  
  
"Anything that helps you sleep better at night is okay for me, Jossie," he said and kissed her forehead.  
  
"Thank you," she whispered, her eyes closed, her face showing a pleased expression.  
  
"I'll go and change," Jessica said. "It will only take me a few minutes." She left the room, walking rather fast for a woman her size.  
  
"I'll tell Eric to get ready to escort you," Wes announced and Josephine nodded, still taking refuge from the real world in her husband's thick arms and big, muscular chest.  
  
After Wes left, Kevin kissed his wife's head. "Josephine," he began. She groaned softly to let him know she was listening. "I thank the Lord every day for you and the twins. I can't imagine my life without you. I love you all so much, I love you in a way I never loved Andrew's mother." she looked up at him and they kissed, just like the first time.  
  
*******************************  
  
The grave wasn't very different from the ones surrounding it. It was made of marble and had golden letters spelling the name of their father and the dates of his birth and death.  
  
When she approached it, Josephine broke into tears. "Daddy," she whispered, kneeling next to the grave, crying. She hadn't been there for his burial, after the day he had slapped her and called her traitor she had never seen him again. She felt the golden letters that spelled his name with her shaking fingers, and cried as she said a prayer quietly.  
  
Jessica stood near the grave, but without any of the emotional reaction Josephine was having. She stood by Eric and lowered her gaze, the bouquet she was holding capturing all of her attention. Eric moved to her and took the flowers from her hand and put them in the vase by the grave. "Thanks," Jessica whispered, knowing she would have been unable to do it herself.  
  
"Daddy, I'm so sorry for everything," Josephine whispered to the cold stone that represented her father now. "I didn't mean to let you down, but you wouldn't have understood, and we love each other so much. I'm sorry you had to die angry with me, and that you never got to meet your grandchildren. They are so cute and smart, your kind of children, you know? And Kevin would amaze you, so nice and caring, and a good businessman too. I want you to know that I'm happy, and that I'm sorry if I made you mad or sad with my actions, and I hope you can forgive, Daddy, so we can both be happy."  
  
She sniffed and dried her tears. "Well, Daddy, Jessica has something to tell you too, I'm going back to my farm tomorrow morning, so I'll be praying for you, okay? I'm sorry I missed your burial, and I'm sorry for all those things I always wanted to tell you but didn't get to." With that Josephine got to her feet and walked away from the grave, towards Eric and Jessica.  
  
Jessica walked forward and stared at the grave taking deep breaths. "I honestly thought I would never have anything good to tell you, Father," she began. "But I was wrong. I have plenty of good things to tell you, Bio-Lab is doing great, we're recovering fast. I married Wesley Collins, Albert's son, and I've bought two percent of his shares, so now we own the company equally."  
  
She sniffed, as she felt the first tears stinging the back of her eyes. "I think you'd be proud of me. I'm pregnant too, I'm expecting a girl, but since Phine had two boys, I guess it's okay. Father, there's something important I want to tell you," she began and sniffed again, two mischievous tears escaping her eyes. "I want to say thank you, Father. I want to thank you for all that work you put me through. I want to thank you for everything you did for me, because now I understand that was your way to show your love and your pain. I know now you were just scared of losing both of your little girls, and you tightened your grip on me because you were afraid to lose me. But you have to know you never lost either of us, not me, or Phine. We have always been your little girls, and we will always be. So, thank you for making me work so hard, thank you for everything you taught me and thank you for sending me face first into the arms of the love of my life. Thank you, Daddy."  
  
She broke finally, tears running freely down her cheeks. "Thank you for everything, and I want you to know that no matter what I might have said, I miss you, I've been missing you for years, ever since I stopped seeing you as my daddy and began seeing you as my jailer. That's it, Daddy. The trouble between us is gone, and I'm your little Jessica again. I love you, Daddy, rest in peace," she concluded and turned. Both sisters hugged and cried for a few minutes. Eric looked away, taking a deep breath, wishing they would just be done with it.  
  
"Let's go home, Eric," Jessica ordered.  
  
"No," Josephine said. "We have to visit Mom first," she demanded. Jessica nodded.  
  
*******************************  
  
"Mommy!" Josephine yelled as she ran to her mother and hugged her. The old woman didn't react to her daughter's emotion and just looked at her other daughter over the shoulder of the one holding her.  
  
"What is this, Jessica?" she asked sharply.  
  
"Josephine was in town and she wanted to pay you a visit. We have already been to see Dad," Jessica answered.  
  
"You went to disturb your father's eternal sleep? Don't you both get tired of making trouble for us?!" the woman asked sternly.  
  
"Oh, Mommy," Josephine said sweetly and kissed her mother's cheek again. "I missed you so much, you have to meet the twins; they are so smart and handsome--"  
  
"I have no desire to get to know the results of the almost incestuous relationship you have with a man who could be your father, Josephine. I don't understand what you are doing here."  
  
"I'm here to say hi, and to say I'm sorry for everything, and to let you know I'm happy and that I've missed you, and Daddy. I just wanted to hug you one more time, that's all," Josephine said, unaffected by her mother's coldness.  
  
Jessica stepped closer to her mother and kissed her cheek too. "I thank you for everything you tried to teach me, Mom, but I have no use for it. I love you and I respect you, but I can't be you, I can't be a wife like you or a mother like you. You do understand that, don't you? You do understand that I want to do things differently?" she asked hopefully.  
  
"Do things however you want, Jessica. But don't you dare to come here and talk to me about whatever aberration you commit while raising your child," she said coldly, turned on her heel and climbed the stairs, out of their sight. Jessica looked hurt by her words, but Josephine still looked unaffected.  
  
"She's just impossible, isn't she?" Phine asked.  
  
"Yes, she's unbearable," Jessica answered and turned on her heel and left the house. That was the last time they both saw their mother alive.  
  
**************************  
  
"Jen?" Wes called. The officer looked up at him and smiled.  
  
"Hey," she greeted him.  
  
"Has Jess talked to you yet?" he asked.  
  
"No, not yet," she answered.  
  
"Kevin told me about him and Josephine. It's amazing how nothing can keep two people who are meant to be together apart," he said. "When I think of the thousand years that separate us, and the two pairs of wedding bands, I can't help but wonder--"  
  
"What the hell were we thinking about on that beach?" Jen completed jokingly.  
  
"Are you reading my mind?" he asked rhetorically.  
  
"As a matter of fact, I am," she answered.  
  
"You never really loved me, did you?" he asked musingly.  
  
"You never really loved me either, Wes. To me you were just the closest thing to home, the closest thing to Alex I had. For you I was just a challenge, I was the one girl that was beyond your reach, the girl you wanted to have but had to fight for."  
  
"I guess the effect wore off when I got you, didn't it?" he asked her, with a playful expression.  
  
"It did, but I loved you as a friend, you know? I always appreciated you."  
  
"And I appreciated you, Jen. But I have to say I'm glad we couldn't be together," he said. "It wouldn't have worked between us."  
  
"No, it wouldn't have. I would have eventually found out I was looking for Alex in you," she admitted.  
  
"I guess you would have. We never loved each other as a couple, did we?"  
  
"No, Wes. Even if we thought we did, we never loved each other as a couple," she assured him. He didn't seem convinced so she asked, "Do you trust me?"  
  
He looked at her, smiled and said, "That's my line, but I do trust you."  
  
They fell silent for a few seconds.  
  
Then they heard footsteps behind them and saw Jessica, who had just gotten back home, enter the terrace behind them. "You wanted to talk to me?" Jen asked her.  
  
"Not anymore," Jessica said. "Everything I wanted you to tell me, I just heard. That's all I needed."  
  
"So, are we friends?" Jen asked, offering her hand.  
  
"Of course, you saved my life, rescued my husband and saved my sister. Of course we're friends," the redhead answered, shaking Jen's hand.  
  
Wes looked at them, smiling, and then his gaze slid past the two women, and he saw his own futuristic counterpart standing by the door, also smiling.  
  
Miracles happen, Wes thought.  
  
Every day, Jen whispered in his mind, as she walked to her husband, and sought peace in his grasp. Wes moved forward to hold Jessica, and she looked into his eyes.  
  
Then both couples kissed at once, and the sun set in the background, reflecting the feelings of their hearts.  
  
To be continued. 


	28. chapter 28

Chapter 28  
  
Jessica sat on her bed looking at colors and wallpapers for the baby's room. She didn't hear the door open, and she was startled to hear Jen's voice.  
  
"Picked one already?"  
  
"Uh? No, not yet," the redhead said shyly.  
  
"Mind if I help?" Jen asked, pointing at the bed.  
  
"No, please, sit down," Jessica said, smiling slightly. She looked down at the paint colors again. "I haven't even decided if I want paint or paper," she explained.  
  
"I know," Jen said. Jessica looked at her raising an eyebrow. "It's obvious, you still have both sample books here, you wouldn't if you had already picked one," she explained, to rule out her psychic powers.  
  
"Well, I trust you don't have much to do?" The business woman asked. Jen shook her head. "You like this pale pink or this pastel purple?" Jessica asked pointing at two paint samples.  
  
"I'm biased," Jen admitted. "The Power Rangers powers have a slight downside. they cause this mania-like obsession that has been called 'Color Compulsion'. It makes us sort of addicted to our Ranger colors. Alex is in a bit of a mess right now, because the compulsion is sort of permanent and he was never cured of his red compulsion, and now he's black." she laughed softly. "I think it's caused by the pride and honor of being a Power Ranger. You sort of want to show off, but can't. However, Time Force has been studying the Power Rangers for centuries, and they have classified the color compulsion as a secondary effect of the powers."  
  
Jessica listened, interested. "That would explain why Wes insists on wearing red ties. And when I don't let him, he puts on his red underwear."  
  
Jen laughed. "That's what we do," she pointed out. "When we have to wear a uniform, we wear underwear in our colors!"  
  
"Your colors?" Jessica commented playfully. "So, pink is your private property?"  
  
"Not really," Jen said. "I love to see pink in almost everything. Most of the things I see, I think would look better if they were pink." They both laughed with similar sounds and expressions.  
  
"I think I must be the Purple Ranger without knowing it, I love purple," Jessica said.  
  
"Pink or purple?" Jen said looking at both paint samples. "I wonder what your girl has got to say about this."  
  
"I wish you could read her mind," Jessica commented.  
  
"I can," Jen said softly. "Not too many formed thoughts yet, but I feel her presence. I can assure you it's a girl."  
  
Jessica smiled. "Does she like pink or purple?" she asked playfully.  
  
"Pink!" Jen answered, looking to the ceiling with a fake innocent air. "She likes pink!"  
  
"Well, obviously," Jess said. "She's Wes's daughter, isn't she? You've heard Aerosmith's song? Pink? It says pink is like red--"  
  
"But not quite," Jen completed. "I heard it once on the radio while living here. I liked it, so the guys bought me the album."  
  
"Birthday?"  
  
"Yes," Jen admitted. Then they both looked at each other for a moment, before Jen broke into the actual song. "Pink! It's my new obsession!" Jessica joined her right away, both singing at the top of their lungs, "Pink! It's not even a question."  
  
**********************************************  
  
Wes was picking up his old toys. Now the twins and their parents were back at the farm (they had left about a week ago, but the toys had laid around the house for several days, mostly because Jessica wouldn't let anyone put them away) there was no need for them to be around, no matter what Jessica said.  
  
He reached for one, the baseball glove and put it in a protective bag before putting it inside the box. One of the balls rolled away from him and as he looked up to follow its trajectory he saw it stopping by Alex's fingers.  
  
The Time Force officer grabbed the ball expertly and looked at him. "Play catch?" he asked.  
  
"Give me your best shot," Wes dared. Alex threw him a curve he failed to catch. "Well, that was a good one," he admitted.  
  
"I love baseball," Alex admitted, moving to pick the ball up again. "I'm in the Time Force team."  
  
"What position?" Wes asked. Alex raised an eyebrow and gave him a meaningful look, showing him the ball trapped between his fingers. "Pitcher?"  
  
"Pitcher indeed," the officer answered. "So, you got a bat big enough there?"  
  
"Yes, I played until I was in college," Wes said, looking for the bat. "Wanna take this outside then, punk?"  
  
"You bet," Alex assured him, picking up a glove.  
  
Wes took the bat and they both walked towards the garden.  
  
************************************  
  
"Jen, Alex told me about your children," Jessica said after minutes of silence.  
  
"He did?" the other woman asked, looking at her, interested.  
  
"I hope you don't mind," the redhead added quickly.  
  
"No, I don't, it's just Alex usually isn't that open with people he doesn't know, especially about something so private." Jen's voice sounded full of astonishment. "It took me a while to make him accept that it had hurt him too, losing those babies."  
  
"He didn't say it had hurt him, he just said you had lost them," Jessica said. Jen shook her head as if she was trying the shake thoughts away. "Anyway, what I was going to ask is," she stopped for a second of hesitation. "Do you think you'd be a good mother?"  
  
"I do," Jen said. "All women can be good mothers, some choose not to, but it's rare."  
  
"I'm afraid," Jessica pointed out. "I need to tell this to someone." She swallowed hard. "I have to tell this to someone or I'll just go out of my mind."  
  
"What is it?" Jen asked, sensing her fear. She focused on Jessica and saw the same horrible images that had been haunting the businesswoman.  
  
Jessica putting her baby in the oven and turning it on.  
  
Jessica stinging her baby with a pencil.  
  
Jessica stabbing her newborn.  
  
She shuddered when she felt the satisfaction it gave her to drown the newborn through Jessica's mind.  
  
"Jessica," Jen said, holding the other woman's hand.  
  
"You saw them?" the pregnant woman asked.  
  
"Jessica, that is not you," Jen assured her. "It's a disease."  
  
"I'm having these awful day and night dreams. I daydream of hurting my baby however I can, with whatever is in my hand," the mother-to-be admitted, mortified.  
  
Jen moved closer to her. "Jessica, that's a disease, you need to see a psychiatrist," she assured her. "That's a form of depression, it's not you, it's not how you truly feel."  
  
"No, it's not," Jessica disagreed. "I feel like I won't be able to be a mother. I feel like I will do everything wrong, I'm scared I'll turn out like my mother, cold and careless. Jen, I feel so clumsy, so stupid, the more books I read, the more information I get, the more convinced I am I won't be able to be a good mother." She dried her tears with both of her hands in an useless gesture, they kept pouring out of her eyes.  
  
Jen hugged her tightly and caressed her red hair soothingly. "Jessica, I assure you you'll be a terrific mother," she said. "You have Wes with you, and you don't want to be like your mother, do you?" Jessica shook her head in denial. "That's all you need to not be like her. Choosing not to."  
  
"You really think I will make a good mother?" Jessica asked.  
  
"I don't think so, I know so," the psychic assured her. "Jess, do you want me to take those thoughts out of your head? I can do that for you, if it'll make you feel better," she offered.  
  
Jessica looked at her for a few seconds and then, surprising even herself, nodded. "I want them out," she pleaded.  
  
"I'll respect your privacy," Jen promised.  
  
Jessica shook her head. "Do whatever you have to, look wherever you need to, everything I had to say to you, I already have."  
  
********************************  
  
"Not bad, Mr. Collins," Alex called. "I'm impressed."  
  
"Was that sarcasm?" the blond asked.  
  
"No sir, I'm actually impressed," the officer admitted. "Fourth bat?"  
  
"In every game of my life," Wes said proudly, swinging the bat in front of him.  
  
"You know, the first time I came around, I was so sure I wasn't going to like you," Alex admitted.  
  
"Why was that?"  
  
"Well, because you struck me as everything I had been running away from my entire life," Alex said quietly.  
  
"What would that be?" Wes asked, interested, folding his arms in front of his chest.  
  
"A spoiled brat," Alex said without even blushing.  
  
"You thought I was a SPOILED BRAT?" Wes asked in disbelief. "I left my fortune behind to help your girlfriend and her friends to save the world!"  
  
"Yes, but since you were taking my girl from me slowly I wasn't exactly thinking straight," Alex defended himself. "I was thinking more along the lines of 'how dare he call himself a red Ranger?'"  
  
"I don't believe you!" Wes declared. "You came here and began yelling at your friends and your girl! It's not my fault you behaved like an ass!"  
  
"Actually, it sort of is," Alex said. "I was, you know, jealous of your popularity among the Rangers."  
  
"You were jealous of me?" Wes asked in disbelief. "YOU, Mr. Time-Force- Perfect was jealous of ME?"  
  
Alex nodded, not looking at him. "Yeah, well," he began, but Wes didn't let him finish as he began laughing. "It's not funny!" Alex complained.  
  
"Oh, it is from where I'm standing!" the red Ranger said.  
  
"Oh, is it?" Alex asked. "I assume it would be," he said. "But I didn't want to be YOU. All I wanted was what you had taken from me."  
  
"Taken from you?" Wes asked, not laughing anymore, sounding wary.  
  
"Yes," Alex said in a matter-of-fact tone. "All I wanted were my powers, my friends and my girl back, everything you had, let's not say taken, but borrowed from me."  
  
"I earned that morpher," Wes said. "I earned it, and I earned Jen's trust and the other's too. I worked to get what I had."  
  
"But you wouldn't have gotten it if you hadn't looked like me," Alex argued.  
  
"But I did a good job, and I worked hard."  
  
"I don't deny you were a great Ranger, and a great man, still are, but you DID take my life from me."  
  
Wes pointed his forefinger at Alex menacingly.  
  
"Are you threatening me?" the officer asked. "Because I can kick your sorry ass twice!"  
  
"You wish," Wes said. "Come on! Give me your best hit!"  
  
Alex approached him and, in an unexpected move, hugged the blond man and patted him on the back in a friendly way. "Thanks for taking care of Jen," he said. "And thanks for giving me back everything," he added, letting go of the businessman and offering his hand.  
  
Wes shook it. "You're welcome, besides, now you are taking care of my girl, so we're even."  
  
"I've been here for six months, and still the only things I know about you, I know because the others have told me."  
  
"I like baseball, I like challenges, and I fall asleep at board meetings," Wes said simply. "Probably you already knew all that."  
  
"Not the baseball thing," Alex admitted.  
  
"About you, on the other hand, all I know second hand is you dated Jen for a few years and tried to capture Ransik on your own. First hand all I know is that you are an uptight asshole," Wes said.  
  
"I like baseball, I like challenges and I fall asleep at debriefings," the officer admitted.  
  
"You see, Colonel? We are more alike than we care to admit," Wes said.  
  
"Let's keep it a secret," Alex commented. "I'd hate it if the others knew I have a heart."  
  
Wes picked up the bat. "So where were we?" he asked.  
  
"Five strikes and five hits," Alex said, putting the glove on.  
  
"I'm ready to hit your balls," Wes commented.  
  
"Just his, or can anyone play?" a voice asked. Both blue-eyed men looked around and saw Eric walking to them, wearing a glove himself. Lucas came along, with another bat.  
  
"Where's Trip?" Alex asked.  
  
"He's updating Circuit," said a female voice behind Lucas. Katie came into view, carrying a bat.  
  
"I refuse to pitch for Katie," Alex warned.  
  
"Don't worry, hon," said another voice, as Jen walked in, wearing a glove. "I'll do it," she offered. He gave her an expression that meant 'really?' "You doubt my pitching abilities?" she asked.  
  
"If I'm to be honest," he began and trailed off as he looked at the house, Jessica was coming out as well, she didn't have a glove, nor was she carrying a bat, she was just wearing her sunglasses and a ponytail.  
  
"You are all so lucky I'm pregnant," she called out. "I could kick all your butts in this sport."  
  
"I bet you can't even catch a ball," Wes commented playfully.  
  
"Of course I can," she said. "I have many hidden talents, Mr. Collins. There's a lot about me you don't know."  
  
"What? You jumped out of your window to go to baseball games?" he asked.  
  
"No need, I would stay at the university when there was a game. From where Mom and Dad were standing, I was studying."  
  
"You told me your life had been devoid of all fun," he said in a resentful tone.  
  
"You keep your secrets, and I'll keep mine," she said matter-of-factly.  
  
"I still don't think you can catch a ball," Wes said.  
  
"Try me," Jessica challenged.  
  
"Get a glove," he ordered.  
  
"I don't need a glove."  
  
"You'll do it barehanded?" he asked in disbelief. Jessica good at sports? At HIS sport?  
  
"Unless you're too scared to throw me a ball," she commented, arranging her sunglasses over her nose.  
  
"I'll do it," Alex called, looking at Wes, who smiled at him. "I'll throw you a ball," he told her.  
  
Jen looked at Wes demandingly, and caught a thought from his head: If I couldn't catch that ball. Alex put himself in position and threw Jessica the same curve ball he had thrown Wes. Pregnant and all, she caught it.  
  
"Is that it?" she asked. "I would SO kick your butts in this game," she commented, throwing the ball back at Alex, who caught it, amazed by its speed and direction.  
  
"You know, we were looking for someone to pitch for Katie," he said. "I don't think it would hurt you to pitch, I'll run for you, if you want," he offered.  
  
"You want me to pitch?" the redhead asked. "All right, but I want Eric to run for me," she said, and the comment caught the Quantum Ranger by surprise. "That way we can be like one person, at least for a little while," she explained. Eric couldn't keep a smile from his face as she winked at him.  
  
"Okay," he said. "I'll run for Jessica," he agreed, using her name, which pleased her.  
  
"I'm going to need a glove," she said. Alex handed her his.  
  
"This is a pitcher's glove," he said. "I'll play barehanded."  
  
Wes counted the gloves. "I'm sure I have four gloves," he said.  
  
Jen looked back at the house, "You do, I'll bring the other for Alex," she announced.  
  
"Honey, don't bother to--"  
  
But Jen had brought the glove using her mind. "I did cause a black-out in a city once, you know?" she commented, handing him the recently summoned glove. "This game has got to be Alex's team against Wes's," she said, getting superficial reads from both of the men who had owned her heart.  
  
Both men looked at each other. "I'll take Jen, Katie and Lucas," Alex announced.  
  
"And I keep just Eric and Jessica?" Wes complained.  
  
"And me," said Trip, running out to the garden. "I'm done with the updates for Circuit," he announced.  
  
"Looks like we're even, Mr. Collins," Alex said.  
  
"Bring it on, Colonel Drake," Wes answered.  
  
They took their positions, and Eric, in an uncharacteristic manner, yelled "Play BAAAAALL!!!"  
  
To be continued. 


	29. chapter 29

Chapter 29  
  
"They took another twelve Guardians," Eric told them. Alex took a deep breath and looked towards the window. Jen was standing by it, her gaze lost. He immediately knew she wasn't listening to what was being said in the room.  
  
"Any idea of how?" he asked stupidly.  
  
"They stopped the truck, pulled them out and then blew up the vehicle," Eric answered. "I want my men back."  
  
Alex nodded distractedly. "We'll get them, don't worry." He looked at the images of the scene the other Rangers had taken for them. "I wonder what they took the Guardians for."  
  
"They needed punching bags for their training," Jen said, startling them all as she sat down next to them. "Human punching bags."  
  
"What?!" Eric said, standing up as if moved by a spring.  
  
"They needed them for their practice sessions. Remember, The Mistress is using Ransik and Nadira to train her younger mutants, and I guess their method includes hands-on hurting," Jen explained.  
  
"We have to find them!" Eric demanded.  
  
"It would be useless to look for them. If they have them, they are probably hidden behind the invisibility shield," Trip commented.  
  
"Then we better look for them the old fashioned way," Eric said, walking to the door.  
  
"Eric, no," Jen stopped. "It's dangerous."  
  
"It's my men out there!"  
  
"And they are probably dead by now," she said. Eric looked at her, stunned. "I'm sorry, but it's probably true."  
  
Eric sat down. "What are we going to do?"  
  
"Nothing for now. We need to focus on protecting Josephine and her children for now. Eric, send another group of men."  
  
"I only have two hundred men to cover the city, I can't keep sending troops every time your mother kidnaps them," the Quantum Ranger replied bitterly.  
  
"You have to," Alex answered, just as coldly. "Or Jessica and Wesley are going to know about it. I wonder if your new friendship with Jessica is strong enough for her not to fire you when she finds out you refused to protect her sister."  
  
Eric stood up and left, his eyes burning angrily through Alex. "So alike and so different," he muttered as he walked out. Alex looked at Trip puzzled, but Jen just snorted.  
  
"What's with him?" Alex asked, shaking his head.  
  
"I don't think Wes used to threaten him to force him to obey his orders, Alex," Trip said. "He's met his match when it comes to being cold and mean in the battlefield, and I don't think he likes it," the Xybrian said, being very careful to get up from the table and walk away from Alex as he did so.  
  
"Did he just say I'm cold and mean?" Alex asked his wife.  
  
"In the battlefield. He was specific about that," she answered with a smile, also getting up from the table. In her mind she was thinking seriously about what she had read in Eric's mind about Wes, it had surprised her.  
  
Three months had passed since Josephine and her family had gone back to their farm, and the Silver Guardians had been protecting them, as a security guard on their farm. However, over the past few weeks, two groups of Silver Guardians had been kidnapped from the perimeter of the Simmonses' farm. Jessica didn't know any of this, but it meant the danger around her sister was closing in again, and this time bigger than ever. The now nine- months pregnant businesswoman needed peace to rest and relax.  
  
Also, The Mistress' youngsters had been attacking the city randomly for these past months and the Rangers had noticed they stayed and fought longer every time.  
  
Alex followed Jen and caught up with her in a few steps. "Do you think this is finally coming to an end?" he asked.  
  
"I hope so," she answered. "I wonder how much more of this we can take. And I wonder how much more of this they can take."  
  
"I hope this comes to a painless end for all of us," he said, holding her hand. "I hope nobody else gets hurt."  
  
She kissed him. "Me too, Alex, me too."  
  
****************************  
  
The Mistress was pleased with the results she had obtained from Fly-tag. The mutant was stronger than ever, and also angrier than ever. Fly-tag was quickly catching up with Nadira and Ransik in her fighting skills and also in her capacity to cause pain. She was amazed to see Fly-tag and Centauricon beat on those poor men Nadira had captured for them. She looked up when her pink-haired daughter and her father walked into the room.  
  
"You wanted to talk to us, Samantha?" Ransik asked.  
  
"Yes, I did," she said quickly. "I think we are ready to go."  
  
Nadira and Ransik nodded with evil smiles playing on their faces.  
  
Outside, very well hidden, Fly-tag heard what The Mistress had just said. She flew back to the base of the clock tower, where her three friends were waiting for her. "They are ready to go, we don't have much time," she informed them.  
  
"What are we going to do? Are we telling the officers or are we rescuing them ourselves?" Bunnistein asked.  
  
"Neither," Centauricon said. "We have to let her make her move and we have to do our thing right, we can't risk her knowing."  
  
"True," they all agreed.  
  
"This is finally coming to an end, and I'm sure the cherub and his friends are getting ready for this last battle," Fly-tag muttered.  
  
"As ready as we are," Boulderac added.  
  
"You four!" they heard Nadira calling. They turned to look at her and her father. "Move. We have a family to kidnap and torture," she ordered. The four mutants nodded and followed her.  
  
"I'm thinking of a family I want to kidnap and torture," Fly-tag whispered bitterly as she stared after Nadira and her parents.  
  
*******************************  
  
"The boys are taking a nap," Josephine commented as she sat next to her husband on the couch, snuggling against his chest.  
  
"So we have some time to ourselves, that's great," he commented, holding her tightly. "Aw, my Jossie. What would I be without you?"  
  
"A cranky college teacher," she joked.  
  
He laughed softly. "Probably."  
  
"Kev, I've been thinking," she paused nervously. He hugged her tighter for a second to encourage her to go on. "I want a baby girl," she said quickly.  
  
"A daughter?" he asked.  
  
"Yes, I want us to have a daughter now, the twins are five already, I think this is a good moment," she argued.  
  
"Well, I guess we can try," he agreed. She looked up at his face and he smiled at her.  
  
"Really? You want to try?"  
  
He kissed her excited smile. "Yes, of course."  
  
She hugged him tightly, again hiding her face in his neck. He kissed her hair and commented playfully. "What was I thinking when I decided to marry you? Now I have to agree with having children, at my age!"  
  
"Ain't that a bitch?" she asked in the same tone, and then began nibbling and sucking on his earlobe.  
  
"Josephine!" he chided. "Behave yourself!" her teasing mouth moved lower, kissing the side of his neck and moving to his shoulder, and then coming back to the base of his throat and lower, as she kissed the skin that was exposed by every button she undid.  
  
Outside of the house, The Silver Guardians were fighting a silent war. They were too far from the house for the Simmonses to hear them, and what worried them most was that they were losing, and The Mistress' mutants were closing in on their unknowing victims.  
  
To be continued. 


	30. chapter 30

Chapter 30  
  
The door burst open and three monsters made their way into the house. Josephine yelled at the top of her lungs and ran upstairs to look for her children, followed by Kevin who was trying to protect her from the three gigantic monsters that came after them.  
  
Josephine burst into their children's room and woke them up. "Mark! Mathew! Wake up, now, we have to run, hurry!" The twins opened their eyes sleepily and their parents grabbed one each and ran towards the attic. "Kevin, now what?" Josephine asked, desperate as her husband bolted the entrance to the attic. "That won't hold them back for too long, there are many of them that can fly!"  
  
She kissed the hair of her baby Mathew, who was crying fearfully on her shoulder. She was crying herself, unable to believe that this day had finally arrived. She had been getting ready to make love to her husband minutes ago and now she was running for her life, holding her children tight against her chest, trying to find a way to protect them.  
  
"We have to get out of this house, Jossie, we have to escape through the window," he told her, with Mark hanging from his neck, trembling.  
  
"We'll get killed!" she complained as tears ran down her cheeks, exposing her desperation and fear.  
  
"Josephine, I need you to calm down. It's going to be okay if you do as I tell you, but you have to calm down," he instructed her, grabbing one of her shoulders and shaking her, trying to make her regain control of herself.  
  
She nodded and sniffed. "Okay, what do we have to do?"  
  
"For now, the only way we can get out of this attic is through magic," he told her with a significant look. She looked around at the contents of the attic and saw several huge wooden boxes where they kept most of the things they didn't need. "I asked some of the men to empty some of these boxes for us, all we have to do is get in them, until your sister's friends get here," he explained. "Now, take that one, and hide inside it with Mathew. I'll take Mark with me, okay?"  
  
"Okay," she said.  
  
"Stop crying, or you'll give yourself away. And boys," he added, looking at his twin sons. "Be strong and brave for Mommy and Daddy, okay? Keep it quiet; don't say a word, all right?" the boys nodded, too scared to talk. "I'll see you in a bit," he told Josephine and they shared one last kiss, not knowing if it was truly going to be their last.  
  
********************************  
  
"MUTAAAAAAAAAANTS!!!" Buda bellowed at his top volume, calling for everyone's attention. "Where?!" Alex asked, putting his jacket on, followed by the others.  
  
"At the Simmonses' farm, hurry!" Circuit completed.  
  
Alex looked at the others and they all nodded. "Let's go!"  
  
They teleported out. Wes and Jessica arrived at the room only a split second later.  
  
"Where are the others?" Wes asked.  
  
"At the farm, mutants are finally attacking," Circuit answered. Wes felt Jessica grasp his hand tightly.  
  
"It's okay, Honey, don't worry, they'll be alright," he assured her.  
  
"It's not that," she said through gritted teeth. "My water broke, Wesley, it's time," she said.  
  
Wes stood there frozen for a second. This is going to be one long day, he said in his mind.  
  
Nah, you think? He heard a female voice add, it wasn't Jen's. He looked at Jessica questioningly but she was waiting for him to react to the news.  
  
"Wesley?" she urged. He shook his head and walked to the hallway.  
  
"Philips, it's time, get the car ready!" he ordered.  
  
"On my way, sir," the servant answered immediately.  
  
****************************************  
  
The house was theirs now, but the Simmonses were nowhere to be seen, or so she was informed. "So what? They just disappeared into thin air?!" The Mistress asked angrily of her mutants.  
  
"Mommy, if you allow me and Daddy to go--" Nadira began, but The Mistress cut her off.  
  
"Not a chance," she said firmly through her mask. "You and your father will stay here and guide the youngsters in battle, now that the Power Rangers have arrived. Centauricon, Boulderac, you are going in. Fly-tag, watch the house from above," she ordered. Fly-tag took off, while Centauricon and Boulderac entered the house.  
  
"I heard them run upstairs," Boulderac said once inside.  
  
"Let's check the upper floor, and see if Fly-tag can get the children," Centauricon answered. With 'get the children' they had meant 'save the children'.  
  
They moved upstairs swiftly. "Man, you have to tell me how did you learn to climb stairs," Boulderac said.  
  
"Well, sometimes you just don't have a choice, pal," the centaur answered as he climbed the stairs expertly.  
  
They heard explosions outside and saw sparks and laser beams fly back and forth. "That is one ugly fight," Boulderac commented peering through the window.  
  
"And we better hurry before one of the lethal Teletubbies comes for us," Centauricon urged. They walked around the floor a couple of times, looking into every room.  
  
"They're not here," Boulderac said. "They are just not here."  
  
"They have to be, unless they jumped out of a window and ran through a battlefield where we were standing," Centauricon said. "I'm thinking, I don't know, basement?"  
  
"Basement on a second floor? And to think I thought you were smarter than a horse," Boulderac commented.  
  
Centauricon hit him playfully on the arm. "What is it they're called when they're on top?"  
  
"They're called attics, loser," the rocky mutant answered.  
  
"Well, whatever they're called, I say we look for one."  
  
They inspected the ceiling and finally found the small square that marked the entrance to the attic. "That's my man," Boulderac said, pointing at it.  
  
Centauricon stood underneath it and stood on his rear legs and pushed on it with his hands. It didn't give. "They've blocked it with something," he said.  
  
"Then it's time for me to do my mutant thing," Boulderac commented. Centauricon moved back from the door and the other mutant produced a large boulder from his hand. He tried to punch on the door with it, but it was too high for him.  
  
"Go team, go!" Centauricon mocked, for Boulderac looked as if he was a cheerleader. A really ugly cheerleader.  
  
"Come here and give me a hand, you colt," his friend complained.  
  
Centauricon stood under the door again and bent his forelegs, so his friend could easily climb on his back. "Is that high enough or do I need to stand on my rear legs?" he asked.  
  
"Don't you dare stand on no rear legs, you hear me?" the other mutant said. "You stand still, I'll stand on your back." He began to do it and Centauricon began to whip his tail. "Careful, careful, colt, we don't want any accidents."  
  
"Try not to bury any of your spiky ends on my back, or I won't be responsible for my reactions," the centaur said.  
  
"I'm trying, but your tail wiggling is making me nervous," the rock-like mutant answered.  
  
"It's called waggling, rockhead," the horse said. "Hurry up, will you? Do you still remember the Time Force officers outside?"  
  
"Why couldn't we just teleport?" Boulderac asked.  
  
"How should I know? Open the freaking door already, man!"  
  
"Fine, fine," said Boulderac as he kept punching the door that was finally giving in. "Keep your pants up, palomino, it's giving in," he added.  
  
"I'm not a palomino," Centauricon said bitterly.  
  
"What kind of horse are you?"  
  
"I don't know, but I do know I'm no palomino."  
  
"You have anything against palominos?"  
  
"Is the door opened already?" he asked. As a form of answer, there was a loud crash and bits of wood fell around him.  
  
"It is now," Boulderac said.  
  
"Get off my back," Centauricon ordered.  
  
"There's a staircase that will fall down on your head if I let go," the other mutant said. Centauricon moved forward half a step when a yell stopped him. "What the hell are you doing, man?!"  
  
"Getting out of the way," the horse answered.  
  
There was a tap on a nearby window. "Would you hurry up? We have to get that family and leave now!" Fly-tag said.  
  
Boulderac shrugged and let the stairs fall down. Centauricon looked at it. "Go upstairs and open a window for Fly-tag to climb in. Take them with you, I'll meet you outside."  
  
"You're not coming?"  
  
"I can't climb that," the horse-boy said, pointing at the stairs. "I'm not that good."  
  
Boulderac shrugged and climbed the stairs. He looked around and then looked down at Centauricon again. "It's empty, man."  
  
"Check again," Centauricon ordered.  
  
"Guys!" Fly-tag called. "The Power Rangers are winning, The Mistress wants the Simmonses at headquarters now."  
  
"Tell that to Boulderac, who refuses to find them!"  
  
"THE HOUSE IS EMPTY!!!!!!!" Boulderac yelled. "Why won't anyone believe me when I say the goddamned house is empty?!"  
  
"Open the window," Fly-tag ordered. Boulderac opened the attic window for her. She climbed in and looked around. "Did you check the boxes?" she asked.  
  
"No," he admitted.  
  
"Let's check," she suggested. "And be careful, they might be armed."  
  
"Did The Mistress tell you what she wants them for?" he asked.  
  
"No," she answered, opening one junk-filled box after another. "But the plan has changed, we can't take them to safety from here, we have to take them to headquarters and then get them out."  
  
"Why?" he asked, copying her procedure.  
  
"Because The Mistress would kill us now if we show up without these people, she's officially in a mood," Fly-tag said, finally stopping by the box that contained Josephine and Mathew. She opened the lid and looked inside. Josephine covered her son's body with her own, crouching in terror.  
  
"Mrs. Simmons," Fly-tag began. "My name is Fly-tag, and in order to save all of our lives, I'm going to need you and your son to come with me, I assure you your lives will be safe."  
  
Josephine looked up at her. "You are going to have to kill me first if you want Mathew," she said shakily, trying to sound braver than she felt.  
  
"We are not here to kill anybody, Mrs. Simmons, we just want to buy ourselves some time, until we can come up with something," Fly-tag promised, offering her hand. Josephine didn't take it, she just held her child tight to her and stared into Fly-tag's eyes. She finally shook her head, and jumped suddenly out of the box, surprising Fly-tag. She made to run for the door, but Boulderac grabbed her.  
  
"NO!" Josephine yelled as she struggled to free herself. "Let me go! Let me go! I've done nothing! I've done nothing, please let me go, let my children go!" Her voice lowered into a plea as Boulderac and Fly-tag managed to subdue her. The child was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly they heard him scream from the floor below.  
  
"NO!" Josephine yelled desperately. "Mathew!" Let my baby go!" she demanded. "Let HIM GO!!" she yelled, struggling forcefully again. "LET ME GO!" she demanded.  
  
Suddenly another box exploded and Kevin Simmons jumped out of it and hit Boulderac on the back of his head. The mutant wasn't knocked out, he just turned around and stared at Kevin with an annoyed expression.  
  
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked the man, who immediately pushed him as hard as he could and tried to get to his wife, who was being held by a butterfly-like mutant, who was keeping both of Josephine's arms folded against her back, keeping her from moving.  
  
"Kevin," she whimpered.  
  
"It's going to be okay, Jossie," he promised. "I love you."  
  
"And I love you," she said through the veil of tears that covered her face. "Where's Mark?" she asked.  
  
"I think he ran," he said.  
  
"You got the twins, Centauricon?" Boulderac asked as he twisted both of Kevin's arms behind his back as well.  
  
"Two for one," Centauricon yelled back. "They are both secured." At these words, Josephine let out a desperate moan.  
  
"No," she whimpered.  
  
"Listen up," Fly-tag began. "Secured is code for safe," she whispered in the mother's ear. "We are traitors, we are keeping it hidden still, and we have to take you to The Mistress' headquarters now, but we promise we'll buy you some time and keep you safe."  
  
"Listen carefully," Boulderac said. "If we see your time's run out and we can't buy you any more, we'll get you out, even if that means blowing our cover."  
  
"And exposing ourselves," the butterfly completed.  
  
Kevin and Josephine looked at each other for a few seconds. "What do we have to do?" he asked. "Exactly what you were doing," Boulderac said. "You were doing just great with the yelling and the whimpering, just know that your lives are safe, we guarantee it."  
  
"Okay," Kevin said, and looked at Josephine who nodded.  
  
"Let's take them to The Mistress," Boulderac said to Fly-tag.  
  
"I don't think so!" Kevin yelled and began struggling against Boulderac.  
  
"Very good, man, you should have been an actor," Boulderac whispered. "Heaven knows you could use a few good ones in this time period..."  
  
to be continued.. 


	31. chapter 31

Chapter 31.  
  
"Where am I?" Josephine asked, truly lost. She could feel she was tied to a wooden pole.  
  
The Mistress approached her. "You are in hell," she whispered. "And, if you want to know the saddest part of it, it's not your direct fault that you are here. Did your sister and her friends tell you where they come from? Or do I get to tell you the story?"  
  
"They told me. They come from the future," Josephine said steadily. "Just like you."  
  
"True, we all come from the future, from a future I, personally, don't like," The Mistress said.  
  
"What do I have to do with this? What do my children have to do with your life?" The young mother asked, half angry, half scared.  
  
"They'll grow up, and have children who'll have children, who'll have children, etcetera until one of them will have Jennifer Scotts. Why do I hate Jennifer Scotts so much? Well, she captured Ransik, and she stopped and destroyed many of my plans, most of them without knowing, but what truly made me go after her is the fact that she met and married my son. My perfect Alexander married that farm girl and I shudder to think what their children will be like."  
  
"You hate her because she married your son and made him happy?" Josephine asked, completely confused.  
  
"Among other things," The Mistress said. "Over a year ago she killed all my mutants except for Ransik and Nadira. Those mutants were like my children and she killed them all, and now, she has to pay."  
  
"But why us?" Josephine asked. "Why not kill someone from further ahead in time?"  
  
"I thought your sister Jessica was Jennifer's ancestor. I thought it would hurt her more to know that I had killed her friend Wes's wife to get her. But when it turned out to be you, well, I was already here, there was no reason to go anywhere else." Josephine looked at her with hatred. She was going to kill her and her family for no real reason. "I wanted to kill Jennifer, but Alexander loves her too much, so it would hurt him terribly. However not everything was lost, if I disappeared Jennifer from history, she would never meet Alex and he wouldn't suffer. And I won't have to worry about her."  
  
At that moment, Kevin and the children were brought in, and tied to other poles. Josephine looked around again and noticed she was in a stable, but it wasn't hers.  
  
"Jossie, are you all right?" Kevin asked. She nodded. "What do you want from us?" he asked his captor.  
  
"I want you to die painfully," she answered bluntly, not even caring that two little kids were listening.  
  
"Then kill us already," he dared.  
  
"Don't be stupid, where is your sense of histrionics? I want Jennifer Scotts to watch this, if she survives the fight with my mutants," The Mistress said cruelly. Behind her, half hidden in the shadows, Bunnistein watched the scene. Josephine looked at her for a second and she nodded smiling. The red-haired woman turned to her children and smiled at them.  
  
"It will be alright, babies, don't worry, Mommy and Daddy are here," she said sweetly.  
  
**************************  
  
The Rangers and the mutants were in the middle of a small war. Laser beams, explosions, dust and fighting yells filled a small portion of the Simmons' farm.  
  
"Alex," Jen called when she saw three mutants walking out of the house with the Simmonses in their grasps. "They've got them, we have to go!"  
  
"What do we do about this?" Alex asked, pointing at the fight. A mutant ran to Jen and kicked her in the side, sending her flying into her husband's arms. "Are you okay?" he asked.  
  
She nodded. "We have to call Wes and Eric. Tell them the Silver Guardians have to come here and fight these mutants off. You have to come with me, we have to rescue the Simmonses."  
  
"All right," Alex agreed, he brought his morpher to his mouth and called. "Eric?"  
  
"I hear you."  
  
"Call all the Silver guardians to the Simmons' farm now. Come along, and bring Wes," Alex ordered.  
  
"Wes? Alex, I don't think he can make it there," Eric said.  
  
"Is he hurt?"  
  
"No, Jessica is in labor." At Eric's words, Alex looked at Jen, she shrugged.  
  
"I trust you," she said.  
  
"She won't be giving birth to that baby for the next couple of hours. Tell Wes that we need him, we really, really need him, and you and your Silver Guardians. The mutants are too strong, so hurry up."  
  
"Are you going to make Wes fight these mutants while his wife is in labor?"  
  
"Eric, believe me, I don't have a choice," the black Ranger said and closed communications. "What now?" he asked Jen. They were fairly well hidden from the fight, which guaranteed them a few minutes of peace.  
  
"They left that way," she said, pointing to her right. "I think they've crossed to the next farm, I can feel them. They're scared."  
  
"Then we have to hurry," he said. "Summon your cycle and let's go."  
  
*************************************  
  
Eric took a deep breath and approached Wes, who was sitting next to Jessica. She was lying on the bed, already in a hospital robe, and seemed to be in pain.  
  
"Wes?" he called. The blond man looked up from his wife's face and smiled for a second, before his expression went dark. "Can I talk to you for a second?"  
  
"Where are you going?" Jessica asked when Wes stood up. She grasped his hand and looked at him nervously.  
  
"I'll just talk to Eric for a second, I'll be right back, baby," he soothed. She nodded and looked away from him, towards the window.  
  
Wes followed Eric out of the room. "Alex called," Eric began. "He said the fight going badly, and that they need our help."  
  
"Well, go, take the Silver Guardians with you, you have to save Josephine, or Jessica is going to kill us all," Wes said and turned to the door.  
  
"No!" Eric stopped him. "I meant us. You and me." He pointed at Wes and then at himself.  
  
"Tell Alex there is no force in the universe that will make me leave my wife's side at this moment!" Wes said angrily.  
  
"Wesley!!" Jessica called from inside, in pain. Wes ran to her side and held her hand.  
  
"Okay, okay. Breathe now, baby, breathe. It's over now, it is okay," he whispered tenderly through the contraction. "Very good," he congratulated.  
  
"What did Eric want?" she asked.  
  
"Alex wanted me to help them in the fight," her eyes opened wide. "But I won't leave you."  
  
"What if they truly need you? What if they're in danger?" she asked.  
  
"Jessica, you're in labor, I won't leave your side," he argued. She held his hand tight.  
  
"Fine, stay with me. But if they call again..."  
  
"We'll see," he said and caressed her hair tenderly.  
  
********************************  
  
Jen and Alex got to the border between the Simmons' farm and the next. That one seemed uncared for, almost abandoned.  
  
"Where to, psychic girl?" he asked. She threw a sideways glance at him.  
  
"Very funny," she commented. "I feel them in that direction," she said pointing at the stable. "But we are not alone out here, be careful," she said.  
  
"Okay, got that." He assured her and they both drove through the uncared- for plants.  
  
**********************************  
  
The Mistress smiled maliciously. "It's been a while since I last pulled this trick on Alex, but I think this is the perfect moment to do it," she whispered and pulled out her remote and pressed a button. The young mutants that accompanied her looked at each other, and Ransik and Nadira laughed. "Well, Alexander, you start by releasing Goldix," she ordered whispering the words directly into the remote. "And then, I would love it if you brought me your wife nicely tied up, please,"  
  
*******************************  
  
Alex stopped suddenly in his tracks--something was wrong with him.  
  
"Honey, are you okay?" Jen asked him. Alex pressed a button in his officer glove and brought to himself the container that the golden version of Steelix was in. "Alex what are you doing?" she asked again.  
  
He pulled his freezer blaster out, reversed it and shot the frozen mutant, who immediately began to grow to his normal size.  
  
"Alex?! What the hell is wrong with you?!" she asked angrily, approaching him. But she stopped in her tracks when he turned on her. He approached her rapidly and tried to kick her, but she blocked his attempt. "Alex?!" she called, but he wasn't listening. He began trying to hurt her, throwing punches and kicks she managed to block only for a while, she had to start dodging them when he increased the force. "Alex, honey, what are you doing?"  
  
"Shut up, bitch!" he yelled and moved at her again, finally grasping her right arm and twisting it behind her back.  
  
"Alex, what are you doing? Let me go!" she begged, but he only grasped her harder. "Alex, I don't want to hurt you," she said.  
  
"Too bad, because I want to hurt you," he said, grasping her left arm and twisting it behind her back too.  
  
Jen focused on him and managed, through a simple telekinetic move, to release herself from his grasp, he flew a couple of feet away from her. The mutant was nowhere to be seen. Jen opened her mind and tried to find some thoughts coming from Alex. Alex, are you ok, love? She asked, but there was no answer. However she kept trying.  
  
Alex got to his feet quickly, filled with sudden anger. He ran at his wife, whose eyes were closed and kicked her in the ribs before she could react. She flew a few feet and landed on her side, demorphing. She began to pull herself together, grasping her ribs and trying to get up almost immediately.  
  
Alex ran to her and before she could get up, grasped her neck and began strangling her, she took his hands in hers, and tried to part his strong thick fingers from her neck. He tightened his grip at this and tears began falling from her eyes when she finally managed to kick him in the groin.  
  
The pain forced him to let go of her and clutch his privates and she made to run, not even giving herself time to recover, but he didn't give himself time to recover either and jumped over her, pinning her to the floor under his weight.  
  
"Alex, what is she doing to you, baby? What is wrong with you?" she asked desperately, as she struggled to release herself.  
  
"Shut up," he ordered as he twisted both arms behind her back again and summoned his cuffs. Jen didn't dare to use her psychic powers on him, not while she didn't know what his mother was doing to him. She could cause terrible damage, or even kill him, and she didn't dare to use her telekinetic powers anymore, because she was scared and confused, so she would have little control over them. He handcuffed her and pulled her to her feet, she cried, scared, not knowing how to help her husband or even herself.  
  
"Alex, honey--" he slapped her across the face with all the strength he could muster. Blood began running down from her nose.  
  
"I said shut the fuck up, bitch!" he yelled and dragged her towards the stable.  
  
Jen looked towards the building and knew the end of this rivalry was coming. She knew that after this confrontation between The Mistress and her, only one of them was going to be left alive; and as her husband pulled her towards the stable, controlled by someone else who was filling him with an anger that wasn't his, Jen decided it wasn't going to be her who died, no matter the consequences.  
  
To be continued 


	32. chapter 32

Chapter 32  
  
Alex dragged Jen inside the stable. She could see five mutants standing by The Mistress's side and the Simmonses tied to some of the wooden columns of the building.  
  
There has got to be a way to let her know what we are up to, Jen looked at the rabbit-like mutant, from whom this thought came from.  
  
I wonder how we are going to get these people out of here, this came from the centaur; Jen couldn't think of him in any other way.  
  
How can we let the pink Ranger know about the remote control The Mistress is using on her husband and the Cherub? This came from the butterfly. Jen knew 'the Cherub' was Wes, and obviously, her husband was Alex. But she was more interested in the remote control part.  
  
Alex threw her against the rack where the saddles for the horses were kept, she assumed when there were horses in the stable, and tied her up in a crucified position. She ignored him for now, and focused only on the mutants.  
  
What's your name? She asked the butterfly, who looked at her, terrified, for a second. Its okay, she won't know if you don't show any sign. You only have to think your answers. What's your name?  
  
Fly-tag, the mutant answered.  
  
Ok, Fly-tag, you were thinking something about a remote control, what about it? Jen asked.  
  
The Mistress put a chip in the Cherub's head and also in Alex's head. She's been controlling Alex for years, and she can also control the Cherub. She wanted to bring him here, Fly-tag thought.  
  
Do you know how I can break the control?  
  
Only with the remote. It has a button and she presses it and orders whatever she wants them to do and they do it.  
  
Where is the remote?  
  
The mutant hesitated for a second. It's in her pocket, she thought at last.  
  
Okay, Jen told the mutant. I need time to come up with a plan, buy me time.  
  
**********************************************  
  
Wes walked out of the room, his sight lost in space. "Wes?!" Jessica called, but he didn't hear her.  
  
All he heard were his mistress' words: come to me, Cherub. Come to me. He walked past people; the hospital seemed full of them. Outside, he got into his car and drove fast. He had to get to his mistress quickly, or she was going to be mad. Past the city and the green fields, he drove to her.  
  
Hurry, cherub. I'm don't like to wait.  
  
"I'm on my way, Mistress," he said out loud, and stepped on the accelerator.  
  
*****************************************  
  
Goldix and Boulderac untied Josephine from the column and dragged her to the center of the stable. There, by order of The Mistress they tied her wrists together and threw the rope over one of the ceiling crossbeams. Then they gave Centauricon the end of the rope and got ready to start pulling.  
  
Scared, Josephine looked at Jen, who avoided her eyes. A pained expression crossed the young mother's face when the mutants began pulling on the rope and hung her from her wrists.  
  
"That's right," Samantha ordered her mutants. To Josephine she said: "I've been thinking in what order I want to kill you, and I've decided you go last." Josephine struggled against the rope in vain. "You must be happy, you'll get to see all of your family die, just like her," she added, pointing at Jen over her shoulder.  
  
Josephine saw Jen's face lower, as if she was embarrassed. She could barely move her head and see anything but The Mistress, however, nobody had ever made her lower her face and this crazy psychopath wasn't going to be the first one. The Mistress approached her with a pair of scissors and began cutting her shirt open. As scared as she was, Josephine spit at the woman's face. The Mistress stood there, stock still.  
  
"You are a worthless worm, you are insane and you don't even deserve to be alive!" the farmer yelled.  
  
The Mistress dried the spit from her face and then, in a smooth move, she thrust the scissors into Josephine's side as deeply as she could. Josephine yelled in pain, and The Mistress pulled the scissors from her body, expecting to see a large flow of blood. "I don't mind if you die first," she said, and looked at the wound, but no blood was coming out. She put her hand on the wound and Josephine yelped but no blood came out. She thrust in one of her fingers and withdrew it covered in blood, but Josephine wasn't bleeding. It was inexplicable. But then it dawned on her. She turned around and walked towards Jen. "Nice trick," she said with admiration. Jen didn't look up. "You can't keep her blood from flowing forever, she'll die."  
  
Jen finally looked up and met her eyes. "I'm not keeping her blood from flowing. I'm keeping it from pouring out of the wound," she explained.  
  
"Well," Samantha said, moving to pick up a rod that had been torn from the wall and then going back to Jen. "If there's one thing you learnt from your husband, it's how to be a hero." She crossed Jen's face with a blow with the rod she was holding.  
  
"That's a nice trick too," Jen said, wincing at her broken lip.  
  
The Mistress turned to Josephine who still wasn't bleeding. She hit Jen again, but got no result. "What does it take to get you out of focus?" she asked angrily. Jen raised her head as high as she could, trying to make it hurt less, if possible. The Mistress hit her in the ribs and a pained expression crossed the pink Ranger's face. "Nobody will save you this time, Jen. Your friends are fighting a lost war, and Alex is on my side."  
  
"Not in what you can call his free will," Jen commented.  
  
"You think you're being funny?" The Mistress asked.  
  
"Not really," Jen said, in pain. "Yo' mama is so stupid she asked what the number for 911 was. Now I think I'm being funny."  
  
"We'll see who laughs last," The Mistress said, turning to her mutants. "Goldix, Come here!" The golden version of Steelix walked towards them. The Mistress handed him the rod saying: "Take this and make yourself sure she loses focus, even if she has to lose her life in the process!"  
  
Goldix chuckled maliciously and stepped forward, towards Jen. "Well, well, well, isn't this the bitch that accused Steelix?" he began.  
  
"Steelix is a friend of yours?" Jen asked. Goldix crossed her face with a blow. "Sorry, family?" Jen asked arrogantly. The mutant hit her again. "Lover?" a blow to her hurt ribs was her answer. That blow was followed by many more, the mutant hit her in the ribs, the hips and the legs with all his strength, but Jen had been trained to resist torture.  
  
Meanwhile, Josephine hadn't, and The Mistress had Nadira running her fingernails down and across her abdomen and back, causing very superficial cuts that were painful, despite the fact that they didn't bleed.  
  
"Please stop!" Kevin pleaded, struggling against the rope that bound him. "Please, leave her alone, take me, but leave Jossie alone!"  
  
The Mistress looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Okay," she said, ordering Nadira to stop with a gesture of her hand. "Fly-tag, Bunnistein, Boulderac, Centauricon, go to the Simmons' farm and get me the strongest four horses they have," she ordered. The mutants bowed and left immediately.  
  
The noise of a car could be heard outside. Everyone looked towards the door and waited anxiously as Wes entered. "WES!" Jen yelled, amazed.  
  
He ignored her and walked towards The Mistress. "I'm here, Mistress," he said, bowing his head.  
  
"Good," she said, caressing his hair. "Did you bring your morpher?" she asked. Wes showed her the device attached to his left wrist. The Mistress smiled. "Morph," she ordered.  
  
"Time for Time Force!" Wes yelled, doing the proper movements. His body was covered by the Red Ranger's armor within a second.  
  
"Alexander," The Mistress called. The morphed Black Ranger approached her.  
  
"What can I do for you, Mom?" he asked in a voice that sounded more natural than Wes's.  
  
"Fight Wes to the death," she ordered and moved away.  
  
"NO!" Jen yelled desperately, but the pain made her regret it instantly.  
  
Wes and Alex faced each other in a fighting stance. Jen looked at them, alarmed, and The Mistress was pleased to see Josephine had begun bleeding. Goldix laughed cruelly and hit Jen in the pit of the stomach and knocked the air out of her.  
  
This has gone far enough, Jen thought to herself. Focus Jen, focus or Wes and Alex are going to die. You know they are perfectly capable of killing each other. She closed her eyes and began focusing on her new trick. She had to make it work because so many lives depended on it.  
  
********************************  
  
Fly-tag and her friends walked as slowly as they could towards the other farm, trying to buy the Simmonses more time. The fight was at its height, both mutants and humans standing strong. The Silver Guardians had great fire power, but they were ineffective. The mutants barely paid attention to them, their attack focused on the Power Rangers as Nadira and Ransik had taught them.  
  
Centauricon stopped in his tracks and looked at the fight, mesmerized. The other three did the same. "I have an idea," he said and pulled out the two swords that hung from the sides of his waist (the human half's one).  
  
"What the hell are you doing, colt?" Boulderac asked.  
  
"There are over thirty mutants there, the Power Rangers will be killed, unless we help them out," he explained.  
  
"What if one of the mutants goes and tells The Mistress?" Bunnistein asked.  
  
"We'll still be on the right side," he answered. Fly-tag nodded and rubbed her hands against each other quickly; generating the static electricity she needed to fire her energy balls.  
  
"What if we get killed?" Boulderac asked.  
  
"I'd rather die as a hero, than live as a criminal," Bunnistein said, and summoned her crossbow. "What do you say Boulderac?" she asked.  
  
"Only for a little while! Somebody's got to take those horses to that crazy woman, or I shudder to think what she'll do to us."  
  
Nothing like what I would do to you if you bring those animals. It was the pink Ranger talking. They looked at each other and Fly-tag smiled.  
  
"She's a psychic, remember?" The others showed understanding expressions and nodded.  
  
Listen up, you need to stay out there, don't come back in until I tell you to. I'll send Ransik and Nadira out, Jen instructed.  
  
"You what?!" Centauricon asked. "What are we supposed to do with Nadira and Ransik?" he asked.  
  
Whatever you please, was the answer.  
  
To be continued. 


	33. chapter 33

Chapter 33  
  
Samantha walked towards the door and looked out. The Power Rangers were holding back her four mutants. "Ransik, Nadira," she called. "Go and help those four, kill the Rangers if you have to."  
  
As the two mutants ran to the scene, she turned back to the interior and looked around. Jen had finally fainted from Goldix's blows. Josephine hung from her wrists, tears falling from her eyes, but in too much pain and too weak to say anything. Kevin looked at her with pain in his own eyes, also filled with tears. She was slightly touched by the depth of the love that tied that forty-year-old man to the twenty-year-old woman. The children were crying annoyingly but she was willing to put up with it, after all she was going to get to kill them.  
  
Alex and Wes were still fighting skillfully, both very good at it, their powers equally strong. She was sorry to do that to her Alex. After all, he was her son, but hurting him was the way to get to Jennifer.  
  
Wes kicked Alex in the ribs and sent him flying against the wall. The old wooden wall gave way and Alex landed outside the stable. He got to his feet within a second and summoned his Chrono Saber. Wes followed him outside and imitated him. Now the martial arts fight had turned into a sword fight, and the sparks and beams that flew from the swords only gave it an extra touch.  
  
"You stole my girl away!" Alex yelled as he slashed Wes across the chest with his saber.  
  
Wes stepped back in pain, but immediately charged back. "It's not my fault you don't know how to love!" He hit Alex on the shoulder with his saber, but the black Ranger punched him in the ribs, making him step back again.  
  
"I'm going to show you how to respect other people's things, spoiled brat!" Alex yelled, throwing his sabers aside and charging at Wes, with the intention of strangling the red Ranger.  
  
"So that's what Jen is for you?" Wes asked as he blocked Alex's attempts to get to his neck. "A piece of property?"  
  
"You don't know what you're talking about, bastard!"  
  
"You don't have to go all envious just because I'm a better fighter than you," Wes mocked.  
  
"You? A better fighter? You wish you could be half as good as me!" Alex snarled.  
  
"You want to take this outside?" Wes asked.  
  
"We are outside," Alex reminded him.  
  
"Then, power down!" Wes said and his armor left his body.  
  
"Power down!" Alex imitated. "I don't need my powers to kick your ass!"  
  
"Bring it on!" Wes dared.  
  
And Alex did.  
  
****************************************  
  
Fly-tag, Centauricon, Boulderac and Bunnistein hid from Ransik and Nadira's sight. Father and daughter walked past them and then they jumped out of their hiding place and surrounded them.  
  
"There you are," Ransik chided. "Where are the Power Rangers?"  
  
"They are fighting the others," Fly-tag said, pulling one of her daggers from its holder in her boots. "But don't worry about the Rangers," she began.  
  
"Worry about us!" Centauricon said, hitting Ransik on the back with his forelegs.  
  
"Daddy!" Nadira yelled and the minute she turned around one of Bunnistein's arrows buried itself in her shoulder. "What the hell are you doing?"  
  
"Exactly what you kindly taught us to do," Fly-tag said.  
  
Anger taking her over suddenly, Nadira pulled the arrow from her shoulder and looked at the butterfly mutant, yelling in anger. She made her nails grow and promised: "I'm going to make you wish you were never born!"  
  
"Says the pink-haired air-head," Fly-tag said.  
  
"Fly-tag!" Centauricon called. She looked and he threw her one of his swords. "Give me one of your daggers!" She threw him the dagger she was holding and kicked Nadira away from Bunnistein.  
  
"We'll take her, you can take her father," Fly-tag said.  
  
"You bet," Boulderac said, growing his gigantic rock fists again.  
  
Ransik, who had been knocked unconscious, woke up and began getting on his feet. When he was up, he faced the two young mutants with the most malignant face he could put on, but the two youngsters just smiled.  
  
"Take it easy, Ransik," Boulderac said mockingly. "You don't want to hurt your lumbago again, do you?"  
  
Ransik pulled a sword out of his back and snarled. "What lumbago?"  
  
"The one you are going to wish you had when we're done with you," Centauricon said, twirling his sword and dagger skillfully in his hands.  
  
************************************  
  
"What is taking them so long?" The Mistress asked angrily. "Well, Jossie, I guess we are going to have to alter our order of death. You don't mind, do you?" she asked cruelly. Josephine was limply hanging there, not even aware of what was going on anymore. Samantha pulled out a small knife and walked towards the twins. Josephine followed her with her eyes, mortified, but unable to move, for she was weak and hurt.  
  
"Mark or Mathew?" The Mistress asked when she was standing in front of the five-year-olds. "I wonder how much time there was between your births." She walked towards Kevin. "How much, Kevin?" Kevin looked away from her, refusing to follow her cruel game. "Which one of them was born first?" she asked, Kevin ignored her again. "Look, they are going to die anyway. Answer my question and I promise you I'll make their deaths painless." Kevin still refused to answer. "Oh, whatever," The Mistress said, bored, as she walked back towards the children. "Either one will do." Then, to his parents' despair, she stabbed Mark in the chest twice.  
  
"No! Mark!" Josephine pleaded weakly.  
  
"It's your turn," The Mistress told Mathew cruelly and proceeded to stab him twice, like she had done with his brother.  
  
"No, my babies!" Josephine cried desperately.  
  
Kevin looked at The Mistress, anger running through his veins, tears falling down his cheeks. "How could you?"  
  
"It wasn't so hard," The Mistress said. "Their skin is quite thin." Kevin struggled against his bonds, desperate to get his hands around her neck. "Sorry, their skin was thin."  
  
"You are going to pay for this!" Kevin shouted, so angry he actually sprayed saliva.  
  
"And who is going to make me pay for it? You?" she asked.  
  
No. Me. She heard Jen's voice in her head and turned to look at her, but the pink Ranger was still unconscious.  
  
****************************************  
  
Samantha laughed at Jen's reaction when Goldix poured the water over her. She gasped and coughed, finally waking up from her unconsciousness. "Welcome back," the mutant said. Jen received a couple of blows with the rod before something else caught the mutant's attention. He walked towards it and came back, carrying a thick and heavy chain. "Did you ever play the sex slave with Alex?" he asked.  
  
"Unlike you, he can actually get some without enslaving anyone," she said, but he didn't hear her.  
  
"I think this will make a lovely whip," he said, shaking the chain. Jen's eyes opened wide when she looked at the chain. It had to weigh about a pound. She shuddered to think all the damage it would do to her body if he used it as a whip.  
  
"I'm sure of it," she said. "Let's try it on you," she suggested and took the chain from him with her mind and began whipping him with it. The mutant retreated but there was no escape from her anger.  
  
The Mistress heard the metallic noise the chain made when it hit Goldix and turned to see. "Leave him!" she ordered Jen and walked towards the pink Ranger. But she was stopped by the stick she had used to hit the young woman.  
  
"No, Samantha," Jen said, her face contorted in anger. "Now I'm going to show you why your mother told you to never make a psychic angry." Her words were followed by a blow across the face that sent the woman to the ground. "There was a time when I respected you, when I wanted you to like me," Jen admitted, making the ropes that were tying her arms release her at last. "But now I'm fed up with you, you know? You really, really pissed me off now. I'm fed up with you Samantha, and this time you can't escape from me!"  
  
Samantha had crawled towards the wall, scared of her prisoner's anger. Jen took the wooden rod in her hand and approached her captor. "It's time to end this, Samantha."  
  
*****************************************  
  
Jen hit The Mistress on the head and she lost consciousness. When she woke up, Samantha Drake found herself tied by the wrists where Josephine Simmons had been hanging. Tied to a pole were Nadira and the other five young mutants. Ransik was lying on the floor, face up. Each one of his limbs was tied to a horse with a rope.  
  
The Mistress's eyes opened wide in surprise. "What is this?"  
  
Jen held her command knife in her right hand, and she noticed suddenly just how bare her upper body was. "This is how things look from the other side, Samantha," Jen said bitterly. She ran the knife's edge once across Samantha's abdomen, leaving a thin red line. "Ever since you met me you've done nothing but hurt me. You and your mutants were always on the bad guy's side, doing the hurting, having the fun. Well, this is the good guys turn to do the hurting. This, Samantha, is MY turn to do the hurting. And your turn to be hurt!" She buried her knife deep into The Mistress's side. She withdrew it, but didn't prevent her wound from bleeding. "Now it's your turn to see your children slaughtered, to see the man you love killed."  
  
Jen approached Nadira and stabbed the mutant twice. "How does it feel, Samantha? How does it feel to hang powerless while your family is being slaughtered?" she asked. "Would you tell Josephine Simmons you know how much it hurts now?"  
  
"Yes, yes, please stop this, I understand now, I'll fix everything, I'll stop doing this," the woman whimpered.  
  
"Stop this?" Jen asked, disbelieving. "Are you begging me, Samantha? Did you hear how the Simmonses pleaded? Do you truly understand what's going on? Will you truly fix everything you've done?"  
  
"Yes, yes, I will, I'll fix everything, I promise," The Mistress said, scared.  
  
"How do I release Alex and Wes from your control?" Jen asked angrily.  
  
"There's a remote control in my pocket," she said. Jen took it with her mind and brought it to her hand. "Press the button and they'll be free, but you have to free my mutants," she said.  
  
"I don't have to do anything, I'll free your mutants if I want to," Jen said, pressing the button that was labeled 'release'.  
  
Outside, Alex and Wes fell to their knees, tired and hurt.  
  
"Great," Jen said. Ransik was struggling against his ropes. "If you keep struggling the horses are going to get scared and they'll run away, each in a different direction," Jen warned. Ransik went still immediately. "That is not going to help you either," Jen said, slapping the rear of one of the horses.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOO!" The Mistress yelled over the sound of hooves. "You've killed him!" she yelled at Jen.  
  
But Jen's face was different, it wasn't bitter or angry. It was sweet and concerned. "No, no, Samantha," she said softly. "No one killed anybody. You need to relax, so you can come out and wake up, back to reality."  
  
Alex walked into the room, dressed in civilian clothes, not in his uniform like the last time she had seen him. Samantha looked at Jen and then at Alex. "Let me down," she asked.  
  
"Down from where?" Alex asked, confused.  
  
"From where I'm hanging!" Samantha said.  
  
"Hanging?" Alex repeated. He walked towards Jen and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you sure she's getting better?"  
  
She shrugged. "She's making me defeat her in her fantasies now," Jen said softly.  
  
"What are you talking about? What is going on here?" Samantha asked.  
  
"Are you aware of what's going on, Mom?" Alex asked.  
  
Samantha looked around and noticed her surroundings were changing from the stable to a white room. "Where am I?" she asked.  
  
"You are in Argentums Ville's Psychiatric Hospital, Mom," Alex answered.  
  
"What?" she asked, confused.  
  
"You've been here for almost two years now, Samantha, since the incident of the children, remember? We captured you and put you under arrest. In the trial, the jury declared you incompetent and you were sent here instead of jail," Jen said.  
  
"You captured me? You didn't capture me, I escaped. I shot you and I escaped," Samantha said.  
  
"You never shot me, Samantha, it never happened, I put you and your mutants under arrest," Jen explained.  
  
"You are insane, Mom," Alex said sadly. "But don't worry, you'll feel a whole lot better soon." He smiled and grabbed her hand. "And when you do, you'll get to meet your grandchildren."  
  
To be continued. 


	34. chapter 34

Chapter 34.  
  
"I am not mad," Samantha said, getting up and pressing against the wall, trying to get as far from Jen and Alex as she could.  
  
Jen let out an exasperated angry sound. "Well, I tried the painless way," she said bitterly, and suddenly, Samantha saw her surroundings become the stable where she and her mutants were tied down, except that neither she nor her mutants were tied down, but Jen was. In fact only she, Jen and Goldix were left in the room.  
  
"What is this?" she asked again, confused, not knowing what was real and what was false.  
  
"This is reality, Samantha," Jen said clumsily, her mouth hurting and bleeding. The ropes keeping her tied began to release her, but Samantha ran.  
  
"Goldix!" she called. The mutant approached her. "Take care of her!" she ordered and tried to make a run for it. But the doors shut and the hole Alex had opened was suddenly covered by something on the outside.  
  
"There's no escaping for you this time, Samantha," Jen said, turning the electric light on. "If I have to fight Goldix, I will, but you'll come next."  
  
**********************************  
  
The fight between the mutants had been fierce, both sides knew very well how to fight, and even if the odds were slightly turned towards Nadira and Ransik, the youngsters had something that made them much stronger; desire for revenge and bottled up anger. Something Nadira and Ransik knew very well, for they had felt the strength and power it seemed to give.  
  
Both groups had separated when Nadira had made a run for it and the girls had had to follow her. Nadira had managed to defend herself from both of her attackers, but she found that she was losing fast. Bunnistein kicked her hard in the abdomen and Fly-tag kicked her behind the knees, forcing her to fall face down to the floor.  
  
Bunnistein turned her over by kicking her side. "This is for the other girls," she said, firing one of her arrows at Nadira's hand, and nailing her to the ground that way. "This is for me," she added and shot Nadira's other hand that was being held down by Fly-tag.  
  
"And this is for my wings," Fly-tag said, cutting Nadira's nails in half with the help of her dagger. "Revenge is sweet, Nadira. It is really sweet," the butterfly said. "So sweet it turns sickly."  
  
"We're done here," Bunnistein said. "Let's check on the boys." Fly-tag nodded.  
  
The boys were fighting Ransik strongly. Centauricon was moving rapidly for someone with four legs, and Boulderac was incredibly skilled and strong. The girls looked at the fight, not wanting to meddle in the boys' business.  
  
"I'll cause you some pain, boys, because pain is a great teacher," Ransik menaced and charged forward, managing to open a cut on Centauricon's arm. The wound began to bleed profusely, but the young centaur ignored it.  
  
He looked up and saw the cables that brought electricity to the stable hanging over their heads. He whistled at Boulderac, who followed his eyes and understood his plan. Ransik was tired and hurt, and seeing Nadira bleeding from both of her hands did nothing to improve his fighting skills, although it did improve his anger towards the four traitors. He growled and fired an energy blast at the two girls, who were caught in the explosion.  
  
"PAIN!!" he yelled.  
  
"Dude, I don't know what the hell The Mistress did to you, but you need help," Centauricon said, throwing his swords towards the cables, cutting one of them, sending it falling to the hand of Boulderac. "That isn't pain. This is!" He struck Ransik with the end of the cable.  
  
*******************************  
  
The lights went out. A terrible yell of pain filled the air. Jen and The Mistress stood still for a second, both acknowledging the voice that was screaming. Goodbye, Ransik. You were a good ally, and a terrific adversary, Jen thought.  
  
"Well, Goldix. I guess it's you and me," Jen began. The mutant summoned a blaster and shot. Jen barely dodged the fire and hid behind a box. Okay, Jennifer, time to trick yourself. You are healthy and fine. And this is coming to an end. The pain disappeared, even if the wounds didn't.  
  
She rolled out of the box and was greeted by Goldix's fire. She stood and looked at him defiantly. "You should have asked Alex to take this from me," she told The Mistress showing her morpher. "Time for Time Force!" She called; her pink armor covered her body, and she could feel the healing process begin.  
  
"Morphed or not, you can't defeat me," the mutant said.  
  
"I defeated Steelix, and I'll defeat you," she answered. "Chrono Saber!" she summoned and stood in a fighting stance. "I'll even let you go first."  
  
"That's okay by me," the mutant called and attacked her. He threw a kick she blocked and she rolled away from him, dancing around, trying to avoid more injuries. The healing process of the armor could close her open wounds and take the pain away for a little while, but it wouldn't heal her perfectly.  
  
The mutant was fast and strong, but so was she. She defended herself and attacked him the way she had learnt during her years in Time Force, and she could easily tell he was a young mutant. His fighting was passionate but uncontrolled, he attacked without a plan and almost blindly, and that was her biggest advantage over him.  
  
They kept moving, Samantha was crouched in a corner, trembling and fearful. Jen had a hard time believing this was the woman who had guided all the crime in Argentums Ville, but then she knew her mind games were scary.  
  
Goldix was a good adversary but Jen didn't have time to deal with him now. She had to get Samantha; she had to put an end to the fight. "This is it, Goldix. I don't have time to fight you anymore," she told the mutant. Her mind took hold of the young mutant and made him float in midair, paralyzed. "It's been fun, but I don't have time for you. Freezer Blaster!" she summoned, aimed and shot the mutant's DNA patch.  
  
In a moment he was frozen and shrunk. Jen put him in a container and sent the container to her inter-dimensional locker. "Power down!" she called and looked around. "It's just you and me now, Samantha," she declared, but the woman wasn't crouching by the door anymore. All of Jen's senses went into full alert at once, but it was too late. Samantha Drake hit her in the back with the chain Goldix had found for her.  
  
***********************************  
  
Kevin Simmons ran out of the stable, his wife in his arms, bleeding, and his children, crying and scared, running behind him. He assumed it had been Jen and her psychic powers who had loosened the ropes that kept them tied allowing him to take his wife and escape, running in search for help for his beloved Josephine.  
  
He ran out and into Wes and Alex, who were lying on their backs, taking deep breaths and clutching their ribs. "Kevin!" Wes called. "Are you all right?" he asked in a gasp.  
  
"Wes, Alex, what happened to you two? You suddenly began fighting each other like mad," Kevin asked as he kept moving, followed by Alex and Wes, who had gotten to their feet.  
  
"Wes," Alex called. "Go back to the city, and be with Jessica. I'll save Jen, don't worry," he ordered.  
  
Wes nodded and winced. "Make sure she comes out alive," he pleaded.  
  
"Don't worry, she's a fighter," Alex said and ran back to the stable.  
  
"Come on, Kevin, I'll drive you to Silver Hills, it's Josephine's best chance," Wes offered and Kevin barely nodded, running to Wes's car and getting in. "Don't worry, we'll be there in no time at all!"  
  
*************************************  
  
The doctor finished checking on Jessica, who was looking at the door of the room in hopes of seeing Wes come back in anytime now. "Jessica, you are ready," the doctor told her.  
  
Jessica shook her head with a pleading expression. "No, please not yet, Wes isn't here, he's not here!"  
  
"You're ready, your baby will make his way out now and you have to help her. Neither one of you can wait any longer," the doctor told her with a sweet voice.  
  
"But Wesley--"  
  
"Wesley still has time, Jessica, but you have to start pushing now," the doctor said. A nurse with a kind face approached Jessica's side and offered her hand.  
  
"It will be okay now, Jessica. Let's focus on bringing this baby girl to the world now, okay?"  
  
Jessica nodded taking a deep breath. "Okay."  
  
**************************************  
  
Wes drove faster than he legally could, but he had a dying woman in his back seat and that seemed like a plausible excuse. That and his wife probably giving birth alone in the hospital to their first child. He took his cell phone and dialed Jessica's number. After a few rings, a woman who wasn't Jessica picked up.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Hi, this is Wesley Collins, is that my wife's cell phone?"  
  
"Yes, Mister Collins, this is your wife's cell phone," the woman said. "I'm Marilyn, I'm your wife's nurse, and she's already pushing."  
  
"No, no, no pushing, no, you have to stop her, I'm on my way there!" he said desperately, driving even faster. "I'm on my way there with her wounded sister! I need an emergency team waiting for me, but don't say anything to Jessica, please!"  
  
"What exactly happened?" the woman asked.  
  
"I have several superficial cuts and something that looks like a stab," Wes informed. "Please, I need a pediatric psychological assistant for two five- year-olds, please."  
  
"Okay, we'll have that ready for you."  
  
"Let me talk to Jessica," Wes pleaded. He heard the phone been handed to someone else. "Jess? Honey, I'm sorry."  
  
"Where the hell are you, Wesley?" she moaned in what sounded like pain and effort. "Why did you leave?"  
  
"I'm not sure," he said. "I don't remember leaving your side, baby, but I'm driving there as fast as I can."  
  
"Well, hurry," she said and then moaned again. "I'm pushing already."  
  
"I know, I'll stay with you on the phone, okay?"  
  
"Okay for now, but I want you here!"  
  
*************************************  
  
Jen tried to get up, but her back was creaking. "Damn!" she cursed softly. "What did you do to me?"  
  
"Just beat you up," Samantha said, and Jen felt a kick on her ribs. "If someone had told me it was going to feel this good, I wouldn't have wasted my time with mutants and time-traveling."  
  
"Really?" Jen asked sarcastically, turning face-up.  
  
"Yeah," Samantha said, a metal bar in her hand.  
  
"Where did you get that from?" Jen asked, looking around the best she could. "Doesn't this place run out of things you can beat me up with?"  
  
"Apparently not," The Mistress said cruelly. She twirled the bar as if it was a sword and took it firmly in both hands. "I've got to admit that trick of the fake realities surprised me, it was pretty good." She threw a blow at Jen, but the pink Ranger rolled out of the way.  
  
"Thanks," she said, focusing to make her pain go away, but it was getting harder and harder. As she tried to get up, she felt something running down her legs. She sighed and cursed.  
  
Samantha ignored her cursing. "You are one powerful psychic, you know that? But what truly amazes me aren't your psychic powers, but your will power." She approached her daughter-in-law and took another swing with the bar. Jen tried to move away but she was hit this time, falling face-up to the floor. "You are truly brilliant, always trying to learn something new, a better way to make the world a better place," The Mistress said sarcastically, preparing to hit the young woman again.  
  
"Enough!" Jen said in an authoritarian voice and the bar flew from Samantha's hand to the opposite side of the room.  
  
"Hey, that's okay, I can fight without weapons too, want to see?" she offered and raised her leg, ready to kick the girl in the face. However, as she drew her leg forcefully down, Jen's hands stopped it, grabbed it and then twisted it, making her fall to the ground.  
  
"No thanks, I think I'll take your word for it," Jen said, getting to her feet, wiping the blood from her face.  
  
"You are very resistant and persistent," Samantha Drake commented, amused, as she got up. "But this is a fight you can't win."  
  
"It won't be for lack of trying," Jen promised.  
  
"You just never give up, do you? You'll never die, right?"  
  
"Well, you said it yourself," Jen said. "One thing I learnt from my husband, is how to be a hero!"  
  
To be continued. 


	35. chapter 35

Chapter 35  
  
Alex ran back to the stable but was stopped midway by his communicator beeping. "Alex?!" Lucas called.  
  
"What is it Lucas?" he asked.  
  
"We need help, we are getting our asses handed to us back here," he said.  
  
"Lucas, Jen is alone with Mom, probably hurt," Alex said.  
  
"Forget about Jen for a second, Alex, she can take care of herself, we need you here," Lucas chided. Alex looked towards the stable and then towards the fight, where explosions and laser beams could be seen from the distance.  
  
"Fine," he said, making a decision. "I'm on my way, hang on tight and regroup," he ordered, he closed the communication and ran towards the battle, wishing silently Jen could really take care of herself.  
  
****************************************  
  
Samantha kicked Jen across the face again, making the younger woman stumble to one side. Jen acted on impulse and with a yell of anger, kicked Samantha as hard as she could after a half-turn of her hurt body.  
  
Samantha tripped over the chain she had used to hit Jen and fell on her butt. "I am amazed at you, Farm Girl," she said, as Jen approached her angrily and punched her in the face. "You just became me," she announced.  
  
"I'm still fighting the bad guys," Jen said, taking another turning kick at the fallen woman's jaw.  
  
"All I see is you kicking an opponent when she's down!"  
  
"What is equal is fair," Jen answered. "You did it to me; I get to do it to you."  
  
"That's not how heroes think, Farm Girl. Perhaps your psychic powers are driving you a tad too close to the dark side? You have tasted power and have enjoyed it, haven't you? If not, why not create a different fantasy for me? Why create one where you got to kill my mutant family?"  
  
"I have killed your mutant family," Jen said. "In a different timeline, I killed Nadira with my own two hands. I'm not proud of it, but it's something I did. I will remember it forever, even if it technically never happened. Nadira's death will torment me forever."  
  
"That is so noble," Samantha said, getting to her feet. "So noble it's disgusting. You are in for a rude awakening on how the world works, Jen, you'll see that noble feelings of regret usually aren't valuable. You've felt it, haven't you? Ransik and Nadira saying they were sorry was not enough for you, you always wanted more. You wanted pain for them, didn't you? You wanted pain you could see them feel, not just regret. Regret wasn't enough for you, and it's not enough for anyone. Only pain is a punishment hard enough, isn't it?"  
  
"Perhaps you're right, perhaps you're wrong," Jen said bitterly. "That's what we are here to find out, isn't it?" she said, throwing a kick Samantha managed to block and return quickly.  
  
"Pain, Jennifer, I want you to feel it," Samantha said, picking up the chain from the floor and circling it around over her head like a lasso. She finally brought it down on her opponent twice in a row, bringing Jen down to her knees. She kicked the young woman's back, certain of her victory.  
  
Jen hit the floor with her face, tears running down her cheeks at the pain. She rolled on her back, she needed to look up; she always had to look up. If she was going to die, she wasn't going to die looking at the floor, like a submissive loser.  
  
"You are so powerful, Farm Girl..."  
  
Samantha was twirling the chain over her head again. Jen felt anger surge through her towards that woman. That woman had tried to keep her away from Alex, had killed him twice, directly or indirectly, that woman had killed children and women, tens of the young cadets that graduated with Jen at the Time Force academy. The only good thing Jen could remember Samantha Drake had done was Alex. Jen felt the anger build inside of her and fuel her will. She wanted to get up and hurt that woman so badly, like she had said herself, pain was the only punishment that was good enough for someone that bad.  
  
Jen felt like a second skin was growing around her. She couldn't move, but she had to, she had to hurt Samantha, hurt her until she pleaded for her life. Samantha drew the chain down to hit Jen, but the latter extended her leg and broke the full blow of the chain with it, so that it twisted wickedly around with a cracking sound. She yelled in pain as her leg broke in different spots, but she bent it down angrily despite the pain and drew it back up, hitting her mother-in-law in the ribs with it.  
  
"If pain is the only valid punishment," Jen began, getting on her knees. "Then we are both going through it, until we have paid for everything we have done!" She stood, putting all her weight on her healthy leg, the chain falling to the floor.  
  
Samantha was getting to her feet, clutching her ribs. "We're not done yet," she menaced.  
  
"No, we're not!" With her mind, Jen made the chain hit The Mistress on the back, and sent her face down to the floor, and hit her again. "We are going through pain and sorrow, Samantha, but we are getting equal shares at least." Jen turned the woman on her back and brought the chain down on her abdomen.  
  
"You are so angry and strong-willed, Farm Girl. I used to look down at you, but now I know I was wrong to think you could never amount to much." Samantha got on her knees and hands, preparing to go back to the battle. "You could be someone big and powerful, Jen. You could even go beyond me, if you exploited that anger and used that power correctly."  
  
"Yes, probably," Jen agreed, limping towards her enemy. "But the problem is I like to move upwards." She grabbed her mother-in-law by the neck of her shirt and threw her, with the aid of her powers, against the wall. "I said this before, and I'll say it again, there was a time when all I wanted was for you to like me, all I wanted was your acceptance. But now, I'm fed up with you, and I want you out of my life, out of Alex's life and out of my world!" Jen had been punctuating each of her phrases with a punch to Samantha's face. "I am fed up with you!" she said, hitting her adversary between words. "Are you hurting now, Samantha? Are you feeling the pain now?"  
  
"This isn't pain," Samantha answered. "This is not pain to me, I've been through so much, you can't even imagine what I've felt. You don't have the guts to cause me any real pain; you are too heroic for it. You and Alex are too good at this for your own good, and that is your biggest weakness."  
  
Jen stepped back from Samantha, anger still painted in her features, her brown eyes burning with anger and impotence. Samantha saw the chain fly towards her and twist around her wrist, then dragging her towards the middle of the stable, right bellow the lamp that had flickered back on.  
  
"You want me to cause you true pain?" Jen asked bitterly. "Well, here's your true pain," she said, and then the lamp fell from its holder, directly towards Samantha, who barely had time to think- and scream- before its electric sparks made contact with the chain around her wrists. Jen closed her eyes, and fell to the ground.  
  
*********************************  
  
Alex arrived at the battle, and found the Silver Guardians and the other Rangers picking up the frozen and dead mutants from the ground. "What's going on here?" he asked.  
  
"We defeated them, with the aid of four young mutants who decided to betray The Mistress," Lucas explained, pointing at Fly-tag and her gang.  
  
"But I just saw explosions," Alex said. "You called me and said you needed help."  
  
"Me? No, I never did," Lucas said.  
  
"But then what--" Alex shook his head in disbelief when it dawned on him. "Jennifer!" he yelled and ran back to the stable. On his way, he heard his communicator beep. "Yes?" he asked, not looking.  
  
"Alexander, please state your location," he heard his father ask.  
  
"Unknown."  
  
"Your status?"  
  
"I have minor injuries, but the others are badly hurt, I probably have a man down, the status of Captain Scotts-Drake is unknown as yet," he said, his voice worried, and out of breath from running.  
  
"We'll find you there, did you get The Mistress?"  
  
"I don't know, sir, she was fighting against the captain," Alex said, finally getting to the stable.  
  
"We'll get there as soon as we can," his father promised and closed the communication.  
  
Alex burst into the dimly lit stable and found his mother kneeling, her hands cuffed and seeming to be in a state of shock. A few feet from her, Jen lay on the ground bleeding from almost every inch of her skin and apparently unconscious. He ran to her and knelt next to her, but didn't dare to move her.  
  
"Jennifer..." He whispered her name and her eyes, one of them black, fluttered open for a second.  
  
"Alex," she whispered. "I had to trick her, I couldn't move," she said.  
  
"You stopped her, she's cuffed, did you cuff her?" he asked sweetly.  
  
"Yes, but she's not under arrest yet. I have a hold on her mind, I managed to get past her barrier," Jen said with a croaking voice.  
  
"Okay, I'll put her under arrest now, you can let go, it's okay, it's over," he assured her.  
  
"No, Alex, it's never over," she said.  
  
"I'm proud of you, Jennifer, I'm very proud of you, my love," he told her, caressing her hair.  
  
"I love you, Alex," she whispered, and it scared him that it sounded like a goodbye.  
  
"And I love you, Jenny," he answered, a tear sliding down his cheek. "You and me," he began with a sad smile.  
  
"Forever," she completed and her face fell to one side as her body relaxed instantaneously.  
  
Alex stood up and walked towards his mother, who seemed surprised to find her hands cuffed. "Alexander?" she demanded. "What happened?"  
  
"You are under arrest," Alex whispered tonelessly. "For time crimes, kidnapping, torture, murder, illegal breeding of mutants, assault against Time Force officers, violation of the will and about every single other crime that one can be charged with" He took his jacket off and put it around his mother's shoulders. "You have the right to remain silent, everything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney." Alex continued reading her rights in a toneless drone, not looking at her. He saw the other Time Force Rangers standing in the door of the stable when he got up, helping his mother to her feet.  
  
"Alexander," Samantha began.  
  
"Yes?" he asked, his voice remaining toneless, mostly because he refused to feel anything for his mother in that moment.  
  
"I'm proud of you, son," she said. "You are good and have your feet grounded. I will always be proud of what you have become, Alex."  
  
"Thanks, Mom," Alex said, handing her to Lucas and Katie, who were waiting to get their hands on her. "It still means to me as much as it did years ago," he whispered, a feeling finally taking over his voice. It was sadness. "Trip, do you have your first aid kit with you? I doubt there's much we can do for Jennifer with it, but at least we'll buy her some time."  
  
"Yes," Trip said and ran towards the interior.  
  
"How bad is she, Alex?" Katie asked.  
  
"She may not make it," Alex answered.  
  
"But she was standing," Samantha said. "She was standing and hitting me."  
  
"No, Mom," Alex said. "That's what she wanted you to believe." He turned and followed Trip back in. Samantha lowered her head, guilt taking over her heart for the first time in years. Alex was hurt beyond words, beyond tears. She could tell her son's will was broken, as was his heart, by the sound of his voice. He sounded as if he didn't want to talk anymore, as if he felt he couldn't make a difference anymore, as if he had given up.  
  
**************************************  
  
Josephine was being attended to in the emergency room, which made Wes very happy, but he had to run. He ran through the hospital's corridor as fast as his legs could carry him and burst into the maternity room like a speeding bullet.  
  
"Jessica!" he yelled, running to her side. "Please tell me she's not born yet!" he begged.  
  
"You are here in the nick of time, Mr. Collins," the nurse told him. Wes kissed Jessica's sweaty face as she panted.  
  
"I'm going to kill you, you bastard," she menaced angrily. "How could you leave me like this? With no explanation?"  
  
"I'll explain later," he said, giving her a meaningful look. "What's important it's that I'm here," he said cheerfully and she grasped his hand tightly.  
  
"Okay, Jessica," the doctor said. "I need one more big push."  
  
"Come on," Wes encouraged her. Jessica got to pushing, gritting her teeth. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven." Wes and the nurse counted together for her. At the end of the count, the song of an angel could be heard in the room.  
  
Their baby girl, crying at the top of her lungs as she entered the world. The doctor prepared her, covering her in a blanket and waiting for the cord to stop pulsing. Then she handed Wes a pair of surgical scissors. "Cut right here, Mr. Collins," she said. Wes took the scissor with a trembling hand he tried to steady as he cut his baby's cord.  
  
"Welcome to the world, baby," he said, taking her from the doctor and handing her to Jessica, who was crying with happiness.  
  
"Welcome, honey," Jessica told her little miracle. "Welcome. I'm Mommy, and this is Daddy, and we are going to take good care of you."  
  
"What are you going to call her?" The nurse asked, taking the little joy from her mother's arms.  
  
"Where are you taking her?" Jessica asked.  
  
"She needs to have a few things done to her," the nurse explained. "What are you going to name her?"  
  
"Caroline," Wes said immediately.  
  
"Jennifer Caroline," Jessica corrected her. "In honor of the woman who saved her life," she said, looking at Wes who smiled broadly and kissed his wife deeply. "I love you, Jessica."  
  
"And I love you, Cherub," she said jokingly.  
  
"I deserved that," he agreed, holding her head close to his chest and kissing her sweaty hair.  
  
"We are a family now," she commented.  
  
"Forever," he whispered. Then he let go of her as if hit by a sudden inspiration. "I have to get you some flowers!"  
  
"Get me some water first, please," she asked.  
  
"Sure thing, I'll be right back," he promised and walked out of the room, looking for a water fountain. Out in the corridor he found Eric, seated, nursing a wound in his right arm.  
  
"Eric?" he asked.  
  
Eric looked up. "How are they?" he asked.  
  
"They're fine, it's a girl," Wes announced, with a smile Eric shared.  
  
"Congratulations," he said. "On a darker note, Alex just called, Jen is pretty bad."  
  
Wes face saddened. "I hope she makes it," he said honestly.  
  
"Yeah, me too," Eric said.  
  
"You need that tended," Wes said, pointing at the wound.  
  
"It's not that bad," Eric said. "I'll go over to the emergency room, okay?"  
  
"Okay." Wes watched him as he limped towards the elevator, but lost sight of him after the door closed.  
  
Eric leaned against the elevator wall, closing his eyes. He felt a hand on his shoulder and opened his eyes. The most gorgeous man he had ever seen stared back at him. And he wasn't just gorgeous; he made Eric's gay-dar go crazy. Eric was immediately mesmerized by the sparkles in his blue eyes, and the prospect of getting to know him better.  
  
"Are you lost? Do you need someone to tend those injuries for you?" the man asked with a sexy smile.  
  
"I'm not lost, but I do need to have these tended," he agreed with a smile.  
  
"My name is John," the man said, and as the first spell wore off, Eric noticed he was wearing a white coat, indicating he was a doctor, and also glasses. His hair was that dirty tone of blond that turned into brown at the roots, and his goatee looked cared-for and elegant. "What's your name?" he asked.  
  
"I'm Eric," the other said, feeling like a teenager that had just hit puberty.  
  
"Well, Eric, is your butt hurt?" John asked playfully.  
  
"I don't think so," Eric answered, his gaze dropping to the ground as a slight embarrassed blush colored his cheeks.  
  
"Well, that's a shame, isn't it?" John said with his sexy smile, surrounding Eric's waist with a strong arm and tenderly helping him limp towards the emergency room.  
  
To be continued. 


	36. chapter 36

Chapter 36  
  
Alex and Trip did everything they could for Jen with the first aid kit, but she was too badly hurt. However, the Time Force reinforcements arrived in less than ten minutes. "Alex!" Katie called. "They're here."  
  
Alex moved from Jen and walked out. He found his father staring frozen at his wife, who stood in shock next to Katie and Lucas. "Alexander, what is this?" Richard Drake asked his son angrily.  
  
"This is The Mistress, sir. We have evidence and some mutants who are willing to testify she's The Mistress," Alexander explained.  
  
"Alexander! This is your mother!" the older man yelled, exasperated. "And she's all beaten up and handcuffed!"  
  
"She's a criminal who resisted arrest, sir," Alex whispered, his toneless voice back. "If you don't mind, sir, I need to take my wife to a regeneration chamber now, or she'll die." He walked away, towards the doctors.  
  
Richard approached Samantha. "Sam, what happened here? What are you doing here?" he asked sweetly.  
  
She looked at him, still in shock. "I did it, Richard. They are right, I did," she said with a voice that didn't sound like her own.  
  
"Why, Sam?" Richard asked, hurt.  
  
"Because I had to," she answered sadly, guilt suddenly filling her heart for the first time. Not only guilt found a way to her heart, also realization of her self-deception. She had thought all along she had a mission. She had thought all along she had to do what she was doing, that those people didn't matter, that she had a good reason to kill Jen. But now, suddenly, she realized she didn't. She had been wrong all along, and had hurt not only several people she didn't know, she had also hurt her family. The mutant one and the human one.  
  
Samantha sighed. "It's over now, isn't it?" she asked the two officers guarding her.  
  
"Yes, it is," Katie said coldly.  
  
*************************************  
  
The medical unit rushed towards the time ship they had landed in a clearing in the abandoned farm estate. They were carrying Jen, or what was left of her, on a stretcher, and were trying to stabilize her vital signs. Alex decided not to follow them for now; he couldn't stand to see Jennifer in that state.  
  
"Alexander," his mother whispered as he approached them with a first aid kit in his hand and Trip on his heels. "Is she going to be okay?"  
  
"I recommend you not to say anything unless your attorney is here," was Alex's dry and cold answer.  
  
"Son," Samantha said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm really sorry, I was crazed, lost in a fantasy, I'm really sorry for everything."  
  
"It's too late now to be sorry, assuming you're not lying," Alex answered, not looking at her. "And if you are, it's not working. At least not on me."  
  
Samantha fell quiet while Alex pulled out some bandages and medication and began treating some of her injuries in silence, with his saddened face, that was crowned by two angry blue eyes.  
  
"When are we leaving?" Katie asked.  
  
Alex looked up at her. "I don't know," he admitted. "The H.C. was saying something about debriefing here, so we could interrogate the Simmonses and the Collinses too. If we do that, we might stay for fifteen days, maybe even a month, depending on how fast Jennifer and Josephine recover. They came equipped for this eventuality, bringing with them containers to keep The Mistress and her mutants in custody until we go back to the future."  
  
Katie, Trip, and Lucas nodded silently, and then their gazes moved further, beyond Alex. The Colonel turned around and saw the head of the medical division walking to him gravely. He took a deep breath, a sudden trembling taking over him, as the fear of losing Jen invaded him suddenly.  
  
"Colonel Drake," the doctor said, offering his hand. Alex took it clumsily, his mind on his wife. "I have news. Not good or bad."  
  
"Please, just tell me," Alex pleaded.  
  
"She's pretty beaten up, with the medical technology of the twenty-first century she would have probably died," the doctor said gravely, but then he presented Alex with a small smile. "But that's not the case, we got her into the regeneration chamber on time, and the treatment has begun. She'll be back out of danger in no time at all, but the pain will remain for a little longer." Alex nodded, his face a bit brighter. He was okay with Jen having to lie down for a while, he would take care of her every need. "But I do have bad news. Jennifer was pregnant, but with this beating, the baby didn't stand a chance. I'm sorry, she miscarried," the doctor announced. Alex closed his eyes with a pained expression that suddenly turned angry. He clenched his fist and hit the air, a tear of impotence running down his cheek.  
  
"The third one," he whispered. Katie moved to him and hugged him gently. "The third baby we've lost," he told her.  
  
"I know, I know," she soothed. "It will be okay, you have to be strong, Alex, you have to be strong for her."  
  
He nodded, his face showing how lost in his impotence he felt. He turned to the doctor. "Can I see her now?" he asked.  
  
"Yes, please, follow me," the doctor agreed, leading the way.  
  
*********************************  
  
The next morning, Kevin stepped into Jessica's room and smiled at the sight of her holding her baby in her arms and tenderly caressing her little head. It reminded him so much of Josephine when the twins had been born. "Hey," he whispered, more than said.  
  
She looked up and smiled. "Hey," she answered with the happy look new mothers can't take off their faces. "Did you see her?" she asked proudly.  
  
"Yeah, I saw her at the nursery," he commented.  
  
"Where's Phine?" Jessica asked, looking at the door. "Why didn't she come?"  
  
"She's here," Kevin said nervously. He didn't know if that was the right moment to fill Jessica in, but Josephine wanted to see her. "Have you talked to Wes?"  
  
"About what?" the woman asked.  
  
Wes walked into the room in that moment, pushing a wheel chair. "Kevin, what a surprise, is everything okay?" he asked uneasily. Jessica straightened on the bed, holding her daughter firmly.  
  
"Jossie wants to see Jessica," Kevin said tiredly.  
  
"Sure," Wes said after a moment of hesitation. "I brought the wheel chair to help her do that," he said truthfully.  
  
Kevin nodded and walked towards the door, where a nurse was coming in, to take Caroline, as their parents had been calling her to avoid confusing her with Jen, away.  
  
Jessica handed the baby to the nurse reluctantly, and Caroline began complaining, with a moaning that didn't make it to a cry. Jessica caressed her baby's tummy and soothed her with a smile, "Ssh! Ssh!" the nurse smiled and walked out of the room.  
  
Wes approached Jessica with a hair brush in his hand.  
  
"What did I miss?" Jessica asked when Wes began brushing her hair.  
  
"The big final battle," he said simply.  
  
"Oh, my God!" Jessica said, scared, turning to face her husband. "Is Phine ok?" she asked nervously.  
  
"Yes, she's fi--"  
  
"And the children?! Are they alive?!" she kept interrogating.  
  
"Yes, they are--" Wes said quickly, but she kept interrupting him.  
  
"And the Rangers? Are they okay? Did they win? Why didn't you tell me? What- -" she shut up when Wes put his finger over her lips.  
  
"I'll explain everything later, right now, your sister is hurt, and she wants to see you," he said.  
  
"Hurt? Hurt how?" Jessica asked as Wes helped her to her feet, and supported her as she made her short way to the wheel chair.  
  
"The Mistress." he hesitated. Something told him his wife didn't need to hear her sister had been tortured. "Tried to kill her, you know, like the Rangers said. So she was stabbed," he explained.  
  
"Is she going to be all right?" Jessica sounded scared. Wes pushed the wheel chair out of the room.  
  
"Yes, fortunately the stab wound didn't reach anything too important. She's in a lot of pain, but she'll be all right," he promised. A few doors down the hall, he stopped and knocked.  
  
"Come in," Kevin said from the inside.  
  
Wes opened the door and found Kevin caressing Josephine's hair. The woman's eyes were closed but she seemed relaxed. The twins were sitting silently in the visitor's chairs, not really behaving like children.  
  
"Phine," Jessica said as Wes placed her next to her sister's bed.  
  
Josephine turned to her and opened her clear green eyes. "Sica," she whispered excitedly. "I heard she was born already, congratulations."  
  
"Thanks," Jessica said, taking her sister's hand in hers. "How are you doing? Does it hurt too much?"  
  
"Not now, they've drugged me," Josephine admitted. "I really don't remember much, I think I was crazed. I could have sworn the twins had been stabbed. Must have been the pain."  
  
"Yeah," Kevin said caressing her hair absentmindedly, looking at his children.  
  
"Is there anything you need?" Wes asked.  
  
"Not now, thanks," Josephine answered. "But I can't wait to meet my niece."  
  
************************************  
  
Alex was sitting next to Jen, holding her hand tenderly. He hadn't slept all night, keeping an eye on her. She had left the Regeneration Chamber in the middle of the night, and had been taken to a rest quarter. No human power could separate Alex from his wife in that moment.  
  
She stirred; Alex straightened his back and held her hand tighter. He knew what it felt like, waking up after staying in the regeneration chamber. He had felt dizzy, confused and in pain, he imagined that must be how newborns felt. She winced, her eyes still closed.  
  
"Take it easy, baby," he pleaded. "Just rest, it will be okay."  
  
"Alex?" she asked in a hoarse voice, so unlike her own.  
  
"Yes, honey, it's me, just rest." He caressed her hair and kissed her hand.  
  
"What happened?" she asked, sounding lost.  
  
"You don't remember?"  
  
"I was in a controlled dream, can't tell the difference between what really happened and what didn't happen at all," she admitted, wincing again.  
  
"Shh! Try to go back to sleep now."  
  
"Are you actually asking me to get some sleep?" she asked with a ghost of a smile.  
  
"Yes, I am, get some more rest, you'll need it."  
  
"Did it work, Alex? Did we catch her?" she asked.  
  
"Yes, we caught her. She's in custody now, pretending to be really sorry for everything she did."  
  
She let out a sigh. "Well, at least I got to beat her up," she said, her voice sounding yielding.  
  
"She's not walking out of this, Jen, I promise," he said firmly.  
  
"Jessica had her baby," Jen said, in a drowsy voice. "They named her after me."  
  
"Are you reading their minds now?"  
  
"Yes," she said simply. "I'm bored, and I need an untroubled mind to rest my powers on. I think I'll take the newborn's..."  
  
"You do that," he told her sweetly. He kissed her hand again. "Have I told you how happy I am you made it?"  
  
"No."  
  
"I'm very happy you didn't die on me, then. I'm glad we'll get to live together for a long time," he said, causing a small smile on her face. "I love you so much," he declared, pressing her hand against his cheek with his own fingers.  
  
"And I love you," she whispered, barely moving her lips. "We lost another one."  
  
"Don't think about it now," he said, caressing her face.  
  
Jen lay there, her eyes closed, her face relaxed. He though she had fallen asleep, until another small mischievous smile appeared in her face.  
  
"What is it?" he asked, even if he thought she was reacting to one of her controlled dreams.  
  
"She's a psychic, Alex," Jen whispered. "Caroline Collins is a born psychic."  
  
to be continued. 


	37. chapter 37

Chapter 37  
  
A week later, everyone was back at the manor, except the new Time Force squad. However, all the investigations, debriefings and interrogations were taking place in the manor's attic. Katie was being debriefed right at the moment, and the rest of the people were scattered.  
  
All that Alex cared about was Jen, who was sitting by the pool, with her feet submerged in the cold water. She was wearing one of Jessica's bikinis and the striped top showed some of her most persistent bruises.  
  
But the worst bruise she had was in her eyes. The pain of losing a third baby, of lying there helpless, on the verge of death, showed in her eyes like a shadow. The pain brought by the responsibility of having to be the strong one, the fierce one. He knew she needed time for herself, she had specifically asked for it, but it wasn't doing her any good. He walked towards her, in a pair of Wes's midcuts, and sat next to her.  
  
He took her hand and kissed the back of it several times, his warm lips creating a pleasant sensation on her cold, skinny and pale hand. She looked at him, her face showing a smile that didn't reach her eyes.  
  
"Are you okay?" he asked, opening his arms, but she didn't hug him.  
  
She just turned to the water again, her brown eyes reflecting the sparkling water, now that they had lost their own sparks. "No," she said simply. "No matter how I see it, I'm not fine." She sniffled, and dried away the tear that had escaped her right eye. "And I feel even worse at the prospect of living the rest of my life like this," she admitted.  
  
"We could take a sabbatical year," he suggested, but she shook her head.  
  
"What for? We'd have to go back to living like this afterwards." She desisted from trying to stop the tears from flowing. "It was a girl," she said out of nowhere.  
  
"What?" he asked suddenly confused.  
  
"Our baby, the one we lost a week ago, it was a girl," she explained. "That little girl we want so much," she finally broke down and let out a wail, as she buried her face in her hands.  
  
Alex pulled her to him, and hugged her tightly, rocking her softly. "Let it all out, now, Jen. Let it all out, I'll be the strong one, just cry, okay? Let it all out, I'll take care of everything," he whispered softly, and she cried harder, finally letting go of all the restrains she had put on herself for the past years. She was shaking with fear, crying with pain and impotence and yelling and wailing in anger; she was letting out everything she hadn't allowed herself to freely feel for years. "Let it go, I'll take care of everything, it will be alright."  
  
"No, it won't," she said with a broken voice, tears still freely falling from her eyes. "We captured your mother, but before her we had captured Ransik. A new one will come and take The Mistress' place, and after that one, another one will come." Alex didn't say anything. She was right; there would always be another one. "I can't do this anymore, Alex," she moaned. "I don't want to do this anymore." Alex just held her tight, knowing she needed someone to listen silently, without judging her.  
  
"I can't be a hero forever, Alex. Samantha said that you and I are too good at this for our own good and she was right. They will always come after us. I don't want to live my life in uncertainty anymore. I want to know for a fact I will see you again every time I say goodbye. I want to have breakfast calmly, I want to sleep tight! I want to be able to go shopping without having to look over my shoulder. I want to have children I know won't be kidnapped." She looked into his bright blue eyes that were tearful as well, and with a pleading expression asked, "Am I asking for too much?"  
  
"No," he said immediately, the answer truly coming from his heart. "You have the right to ask for all of that," he assured her.  
  
She hugged him tightly again, burying her face in his neck. "I want to stop," she said. "I want to stop before it's too late."  
  
"What do you mean?" he asked.  
  
"I want to quit Time Force, Alex," Jen said. And then, breaking the tight embrace she looked again into his eyes, her face resolute. He knew she had been thinking about this for a long time, and he knew just as well that there was no changing her mind on this. "I want to quit Time Force and I want you to quit with me," she pleaded. He looked at her, carefully keeping his face blank for a second. "Alex?" she asked.  
  
He looked away from her. The moment he had feared had finally come. He had to choose between his wife and his work. Working on Time Force was his dream come true, being a Time Force officer was everything he had ever wanted, but seeing Jen like that, so desperate and so distraught, was his worst nightmare. "Are you sure you want to quit? Are you sure this isn't a rushed decision?" he asked.  
  
She shook her head. "No, I'm certain, I want to stop."  
  
"What if we both quit and a mutant comes after us for revenge? What are we going to do then?"  
  
"We'd keep our license to use weapons. And Time Force won't just disappear because we won't be there!" she said. Alex sighed, and lowered his gaze. "You don't want to quit?" she asked.  
  
"I'll do it," he said, looking up at her again. "I'll quit with you," he assured her, holding her hand. It hadn't taken him too long to decide after he saw how determined Jen was. When she had looked into his eyes, he saw her plead, and remembered how she looked lying on the floor, beaten up, covered in blood and almost dead. He also remembered her distraught face, when it had been him dying. He couldn't take the pain that showed in her eyes. "You're right, It's been enough."  
  
She smiled, this time even with her eyes. The relief and happiness that took over her heart and face gave him the last assurance he needed of having done the right thing. She threw herself into his arms and he held her tight, feeling her skin pressed against his and feeling blessed because of it. They kissed. They kissed with the same love, passion and hunger they had felt the first time they had kissed. The felt their souls break free in each other's lips, and held onto the kiss for as long as the could, finally breaking the union of their lips when their lungs gave way. They pressed their foreheads together, in a way that made them feel so intimate and close. They gave each other a succession of short kisses, keeping their eyes closed.  
  
"You and me," Alex whispered.  
  
"Forever," Jen completed.  
  
And for a moment, it was true.  
  
********************************  
  
"Hey, Phine," Jessica greeted them, approaching her sister, who was lying on her bed, still in too much pain to move around. "How is it going?" she asked.  
  
"Better, Kevin just gave me the medicine so it doesn't hurt much. I'm worried about the children, though. How are they? Kevin has kept them away from me, he says he's afraid they might hurt me or something," Josephine looked sad.  
  
"They are fine," Jess said, not lying. "Jen helped them out with the trauma, and they are doing much better. They are fascinated with the baby," she added with a smile.  
  
"How is the baby? I haven't seen her in ages."  
  
"She's asleep right now, but I can bring her over if you want to see her, she won't mind much." They both laughed softly. "She's so beautiful. God! I'm so happy! And I feel bad, because you and Jen--"  
  
"I know how you feel," Josephine said. "When my children were born I felt like I was walking on the air, but I felt slightly guilty because of you, and what you must have been going through," Josephine said. "But don't worry; Caroline has brought happiness to me and Jen as well, despite everything that happened." Jessica smiled broadly.  
  
"They're going to interrogate us as well, do you think you can put up with that?"  
  
"Yes," Josephine said without any hesitation. "Of course I'm willing to do it."  
  
"Oh, and you better recover fast," Jessica added. "The men, and I include Wes, Kevin and Alex, are preparing a barbecue for this Saturday, so you better get well soon."  
  
"Don't worry, I will."  
  
**************************************  
  
Fly-tag and her friends sat, unfrozen, in the time ship cells. In the cell next to theirs was Nadira, who had left them alone, and had spent all the time crying for her deceased father.  
  
"Fly-tag, what is going to happen to us after the interrogation?" Bunnistein asked.  
  
"I don't know," the other mutant said truthfully. "But the Power Rangers said they would speak in our behalf."  
  
"Let's hope they keep their word," Boulderac said, wrapping his rocky arms around Bunnistein, who leaned against him tenderly.  
  
Centauricon and Fly-tag looked at them and then at each other. They couldn't suppress a shy smile and blush, and then, Centauricon took Fly- tag's hand in his.  
  
It was all she needed in that moment.  
  
*************************************  
  
An hour later, Jen entered the attic, dressed in uniform. Katie had told her that it was her turn to be debriefed and she had put her uniform on, and had prepared her answers. What made her feel better was knowing that Alex was sitting outside the door, waiting for her to come out. She could hear his thoughts.  
  
"Captain Jennifer Scotts Drake, Badge number 8111984," she said as she saluted. Alex's father, Richard Drake, was sitting there, his face blank and cold, along with two other members of the high command of Time Force, and, through a holographic screen, Jen knew she was also speaking before the board of judges.  
  
After a few moments, during which Jen and the other people present waited for Mr. Drake to talk, one of the other high commandants said, "Captain, please take a seat." His voice had a strong bass tone.  
  
Jen gave them a shy smile they returned, except for Mr. Drake, as she sat down. The black man who had asked her to take a seat smiled at her with what seemed like pride. "How are you feeling after your injuries? We heard they were serious."  
  
"I'm much better now, although some of them still hurt, especially the bones, and I still have some of the bruises," she said. "And of course, there's the emotional damage that also left bruises and scars," she added sadly.  
  
"Sorry to hear you are having a bad time," said a woman who had a maternal air. "Of course, not that this will help much, you and your team will receive large financial, and probably non-financial, rewards. We are aware that this will not make up for the child you lost or the scars you will keep, but it's all we can do."  
  
"It's good enough," Jen whispered. She was very nervous, so she kept biting her broken lip until it began bleeding again. She touched the small wound with her finger and winced. "Ouch," she whispered, trying to distract the board, so she could read their minds for a second, trying to find out their intentions, and what the others had said.  
  
"We ask you to kindly keep yourself from using your psychic powers while in this room, Captain," Richard Drake barked.  
  
"I would never," Jen said innocently. "It's unethical."  
  
"Well, let's start," the black man said. "This is the boring part but we have to do it," he added in a confidential tone that made Jen smile. "State your full name please."  
  
"Jennifer Christine Drake, maiden name Scotts," she said.  
  
"Okay," the man said simply. "How did all of this start?"  
  
"Years ago I was walking out of my training, after failing yet another exam, and then, sad as I was, I couldn't see this gorgeous man I was walking straight into. I crashed against him, and the sparks flew immediately. That was the day I met the man who is my husband today."  
  
"What has that got to do with any of this?" Drake asked.  
  
"You know it better than anyone else in this room, Mr. Drake. When I went to bed that night, with the promise of seeing him again in the morning, I thought that had been the luckiest day of my life." She chuckled, lost in her memory. "However, that was the day I signed on for this," she added, pointing at her back, that was covered in bruises.  
  
"Explain your relationship with Samantha Drake."  
  
"It was never good. She always considered me not good enough to marry Alex, she called me Farm Girl and never really wanted to meet me. She thought I was stupid and ignorant, because she didn't know the farm my family owns is not one, but many farms, the Scotts farms to be exact. However she had a prejudice against me from day one."  
  
"You think this was all designed to destroy you?" Drake asked.  
  
"Well, she did come back in time to kill the woman she believed was my ancestor, she kidnapped me and tried to kill me twice, sir," Jen answered.  
  
"Well, last but not least, explain to us, please," the woman asked. "What exactly happened inside that stable?"  
  
"I used a new trick I have been developing," Jen said simply. "I used my psychic powers, in self-defense, and defense of others," she added, worried they might charge her for it.  
  
"All right, whatever," the woman said. "What exactly did you do?" she insisted.  
  
"I created an illusion inside of their minds. An almost schizophrenic illusion, they would interact and react to it."  
  
"They?" the black man asked. "You did this in other minds?"  
  
"Yes, I used this 'trick' inside of The Mistress' mind, also Nadira and Ransik, Josephine Simmons and Alex, my husband."  
  
"What exactly did you put in their minds?" Mr. Drake asked.  
  
"Forget that now, how did you do it?"  
  
"It's basically the same mechanism I use to control my dreams; I just have to send the same commands through telepathy. It's very simple actually."  
  
"Yes, well, we'll take your word for it," the woman said. "Now, please explain, for how long did you maintain these illusions, and what happened in reality, and what did you see from outside?"  
  
Jen took a deep breath. "I haven't perfected this trick, so I didn't keep the illusion up for too long, to play safe," she began. "I only put an image of a distant fight that wasn't occurring in Nadira, Ransik and Alex's minds, so it wasn't so hard and I didn't need to keep it up for too long. As for Josephine, she shared one of Samantha's illusions, because I needed her to react in the right way, because I was weakened, due to the beating. Samantha went through a series of illusions that had the purpose of confusing her, and finally bringing her to submission."  
  
"If all the fights she claims to have had with you were illusions, how come both of you are beaten up?"  
  
"Not all the fights were illusions. Goldix did beat me up quite badly, and we had a fight, her and me, she defeated me, because I was weakened, so I started another illusion, to make her believe I was still standing. If I hadn't she would have gotten away again."  
  
"She claims she saw you kill Ransik and Nadira, and Ransik was found dead, can you explain?"  
  
"I don't know what happened to Ransik and Nadira after they left the stable," she lied. "I just wanted them out, to protect my mission and my plan."  
  
"Well, what exactly was the nature of these illusions?" Drake insisted.  
  
"In the beginning I made her believe she was winning. After she stabbed Josephine Simmons, I took over her mind, to keep her from hurting them more. Then I made her believe I was winning, followed by one where she saw herself locked in a psychiatric hospital, and then back to reality. I fought her mutant, she caught me from behind and beat me up, I tried to put up a fight, but I was too hurt, so I used another illusion to make her believe we were fighting each other. Then she fell into a state of shock, which I recognize as my fault, and I got to cuff her. However I fainted before I could put her under arrest and it was Colonel Drake who did it," Jen recounted.  
  
"Let us ask a few more details, Captain," the woman said and Jen nodded.  
  
*********************************  
  
Alex sat outside the door, waiting for Jen to come out. Katie approached him with a cup of cocoa. "She's going to be okay, you know?" she said, sitting next to him.  
  
"I know, but this is the only way I have to support her for now, so I'll just stay here, as close to her as I can get," he said with a smile.  
  
"Jen told me she wanted to quit Time Force," Katie said. Alex nodded. "She told you too?"  
  
"Yes. She said she wanted to quit, and that she wanted me to quit with her," he said. "And I don't know, I mean, Time Force is my dream job, but I won't lose Jen again for it. Jen is the most important thing in my life, and I'll quit Time Force if she wants me to."  
  
"That might bring problems between you two in time," Kate warned.  
  
"There are other things I like to do, that are less dangerous than being a superhero. And if anything happens, I can always go through the adaptation course and go back into action," he said.  
  
"If you get bored of being normal?" she asked playfully.  
  
"Or if Jen changes her mind." With a small sigh he added, "Although I doubt she will."  
  
Katie didn't say anything. She couldn't see Jen and Alex doing anything but being Time Force officers and the idea of Jen becoming a stay-at-home seemed ridiculous to her mind. However she recognized the couple need a break. "Why not just take a sabbatical?" she asked.  
  
"I suggested that to Jen, but she said it wouldn't do. If we get to have a child we are going to keep it forever, not just one year," he reasoned.  
  
"Well, I hope it turns out well for you two, if you decide to quit," Katie said, getting up along with Alex as the door opened.  
  
Jen came out and was greeted by Alex's strong arms wrapped around her reassuringly. "How did it go?" he asked tenderly.  
  
"A lot better than I had thought," she said. "I think she won't escape."  
  
"She won't escape," he assured her. "I won't let her."  
  
She smiled at him and looked at Katie. "Can I have a cup of cocoa of my own, please?"  
  
**************************************  
  
Centauricon looked up from where he was crouched, holding Fly-tag close to him. Boulderac and Bunnistein were also alerted by the sound of the door opening. A guard came in and put cuffs around their wrists. The Pink Ranger and The Mistress' son came in, holding hands.  
  
"You are now to give your statements," the Pink Ranger said. "I wanted to thank you for helping me and my unit."  
  
"It was nothing," Centauricon said with a smile.  
  
"I've been doing some research in the laws, and we can plead Ransik's death as self-defense or accidental murder. Be honest in your statements, and you might walk," she promised.  
  
"Walk?" Fly-tag asked in disbelief. "We are mutants, we won't walk."  
  
"You may," Alex assured them. "And Jen's family needs help on the farms. Are you willing to take the jobs, if you walk?"  
  
"Jobs? In your family farms?" Bunnistein asked.  
  
"Yes. We always need help," Jen said.  
  
"That would be great," Fly-tag said with a smile. Jen returned the smile and she and Alex left. Four officers walked into the cell and took the mutants out.  
  
Alex watched them leave from Nadira's cell door. He turned to look at the pink-haired distressed woman that sat inside. "What is going to happen to Nadira?" he asked.  
  
"She's going to jail," Jen said simply.  
  
"She could have done great things with her life. She could have changed the way we see mutants," he said.  
  
"You know what they say, like father like child. And in her case, she couldn't escape this," she said.  
  
"It still saddens me," Alex admitted. "She's still my sister."  
  
To be continued. 


	38. chapter 38

Chapter 38  
  
It was over. After months in the past, after fighting this woman for two years, after a week of investigations and debriefings, it was finally over. The other Time Force squad was leaving that night and the next day the Rangers got the chance to enjoy the barbecue with the Simmonses and the Collinses. Then they would leave too.  
  
Jen and Alex stood by the Time Ships where everyone was already boarding. Alex's father was now more relaxed and was treating Jen better, so they hugged and promised to see each other when the young couple got back to the future. The other two high commandants who had been in the debriefing room also approached them to say goodbye, and that was the moment Alex and Jen chose to hand them a small box.  
  
"What is this?" Mr. Drake asked.  
  
"Our morphers, our officer gloves and our badges," Alex answered, looking at Jen who smiled encouragingly. "We know we should wait until we get back to the future, but there's no case for that. We are renouncing Time Force," he announced.  
  
"You what?" the woman asked, surprised.  
  
"We quit. We can't continue living like this anymore, sorry," Jen said.  
  
"But--but what are we going to do without you two?" Drake asked.  
  
"We are not the only good officers you have," Alex said. "I have deactivated the DNA lock on the morphers, so anyone can use them."  
  
"We don't want just anyone to use them!" The black man complained. "You two were born to do this, why quit?"  
  
"Because we were born to do it, and it's not pleasant or fun anymore," Alex said.  
  
"We can't live properly as long as we have those morphers on our wrists. Sorry, but we won't turn back on this," Jen said.  
  
"Well, if that's the case," Drake said, looking from the box to the two young officers. "It was a pleasure having you among our ranks."  
  
"It was an honor being among them, sir," Jen said.  
  
"No, you don't have to call me sir anymore, Jen. You have stopped being Colonel and Captain Drake, and have become Mr. and Mrs. Drake, plain and simple," Drake said.  
  
Jen and Alex looked at each other and he wrapped one of his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to his side and kissing her forehead tenderly. Jen closed her eyes, pleased with the touch.  
  
"What are you going to do now?" Richard Drake asked. "Out of curiosity."  
  
"I'll talk to my father to see if he needs me to help him with an area of the farms that can be supervised from the city. If he doesn't, I'll find something to do," Jen answered.  
  
"You can start an odd jobs shop," Alex suggested sarcastically. Jen hit him softly on the side with her elbow.  
  
"And what about you, Alex?" Richard asked. "I need help at Bio-lab, and you did graduate from business school." At those words, Jen raised an eyebrow and looked at her husband trying (not too hard) to hide the smile that was forming.  
  
"Let me think about it," Alex said. His father shrugged and turned to leave. "Have a safe trip," he wished.  
  
"Thanks," Richard answered and he walked towards his ship, followed by the other two high commandants.  
  
Alex let go of Jen and began walking towards the SUV they had used to get there. Jen followed him, a few steps behind.  
  
"So," she said as they walked. "You have a business degree?"  
  
"I took it because he and Mom wanted me to," he answered. "I did it along with Time Force academy."  
  
"Are you taking over Bio-lab?" she asked, climbing inside the vehicle.  
  
"I said I'd think about it," was his answer.  
  
"Because if you are, I can help you dye your hair blond, you know?" she commented innocently.  
  
"Very funny, Jennifer, very funny," he said, not really meaning it.  
  
********************************  
  
The next morning, everyone woke up filled with energy and happiness. Wes, Kevin and Alex set up the grill and began preparing meat of all kinds, along with chicken and fish. "This is a lot of meat," Alex commented.  
  
"There are a lot of people," Wes said.  
  
It was a glorious day; all of them got to swim at the pool, eat their grilled meat, play baseball, and talk all day long. The children even got to ride Centauricon, who along with his mutant friends had been freed from all charges and had stayed in the year 2004 with the Rangers, until they all left together.  
  
Sitting at the table, the couples shared memories from their weddings.  
  
"Ours was, of course, very small and simple," Josephine said. "But as long as we were marrying each other we didn't care much."  
  
"Well, my wedding with Wesley was the exact opposite," Jessica laughed. "We had a big wedding, with lots of guests, and food--"  
  
"And alcohol," Wes added.  
  
"And the press was there," Jessica said. Suddenly, her eyes got illuminated. "Let me bring my album!" she said running towards the house. The rest of them laughed.  
  
"What about yours?" Wes asked Jen and Alex.  
  
"It was a considerably big wedding," Alex said. "Bigger than reasonable, but then again, both of our families are very prominent in the future, so it did justice to what it was expected from a wedding between us."  
  
"We also had lots of guests and the press was there too," Jen commented, her eyes showing the dreamy veil of someone lost in a pleasant memory. Suddenly, her face lit up as well. "That's it!!" she yelled, turning to Alex. "Alex, that's it!" she insisted.  
  
"What is it?" he asked, confused.  
  
"The posed bodies! Are pictures, from our wedding!" she said. "The doctor and his wife, they were posed to resemble the photo we have of ourselves in our wedding bands!" she said, pressing her wedding band so a holographic picture appeared above her hand. In the picture, both of them, wearing lovely outfits, were holding hands and kissing on the lips in a sort of comic way, by trusting their lips forward, as if they were kissing a frog.  
  
"Isn't this funny," Katie commented.  
  
"It's not just funny," Alex said. "It's logical."  
  
Jessica returned with her album and put it in the table. "What did I miss?" she asked.  
  
"Not much we could understand," Wes answered.  
  
"Let us see those pictures," Alex said, taking the album from her and opening it.  
  
"Do you have any pictures from your wedding? I'd love to see how it was," Jessica said.  
  
"Close your eyes and I'll make you see it through my eyes," Jen offered. Jessica nodded excitedly and closed her green eyes.  
  
At four pm, Josephine and Kevin took their children and their things and with one last hug for each one of the people who had saved their lives, they got into their SUV and returned to their farm.  
  
Finally, at sunset, it was time for the Rangers to go back to the year 3004. Katie, Trip and Lucas, who hadn't been entirely happy with Jen and Alex's decision to quit, ordered them to stay out of the ship while they fit everything in, including the three computers Alex had bought (He bought a PC, a Mac and a laptop). While they waited, Alex and Jen approached Jess and Wes to say goodbye.  
  
"It was a pleasure meeting you," Jessica said, hugging each one of them.  
  
"I bet it wasn't a pleasure meeting me," Jen commented.  
  
"I admit I didn't like it in the beginning, but I really got to like you," Jessica said.  
  
Jen smiled. "I'm glad Wes found you," she said.  
  
"I'm glad you got Alex back."  
  
Alex offered his hand to Wes. "Take care of your family, please," he asked.  
  
"Don't worry, I will," the blond man promised. "Take care of Jen, okay? Make her happy."  
  
"I'll do my best," Alex promised back. "I have to admit it was an honor working with you. But don't tell anyone."  
  
"I won't if you don't tell anyone I liked working with you."  
  
"We have a deal."  
  
Then, they switched partners.  
  
"Alex," Jessica said. "I want you to know that I consider you my friend. It was great to meet you," she said hugging him.  
  
"I can say the same," he said. "In both things."  
  
Jen and Wes stared at each other, smiling. "Well, you know the obvious things," Jen said. "Take care of your family and yourself, be happy, eat healthy," she said tiredly.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, likewise," he answered in the same tone of voice. Then they finally hugged tightly, some tears managing to escape from under their eyelids.  
  
Alex took Jessica's arm and said, "Can I talk to you for a second in private?" he gave her a meaningful look and she nodded.  
  
"Sure thing, let's go over there," she said, pointing towards the limo she and Wes had gone to the beach in.  
  
Wes and Jen found themselves on their own when they let go, and they turned around looking for their spouses, who were standing behind the limo, giving their backs to them, apparently absorbed in a conversation. Jen received a thought from Alex's mind: If we don't see it, it never happened. Get it out of your system.  
  
Jen gave Wes a mischievous lopsided grin and put her hands on his shoulders. "Wes, there is one thing I desperately need to do," she said.  
  
"What is it?" he asked, not guessing her intentions.  
  
She put her hands on the sides of his face and brought him closer, kissing him on the lips for a long time. Finally their lips parted and they looked into each other's eyes, licking their lips. "I needed to know what it felt like to kiss you," Jen said. "I had to get it out of my system."  
  
"I'll admit I wanted to kiss you too," he said. "It was a good kiss, I'm glad we didn't do this three years ago, or I would have sat down and waited to kiss you again," he said.  
  
"Me too," she commented.  
  
From the ship's entrance, Katie yelled: "Hey, civilians, we're ready!" Alex and Jessica returned to their spouses' side, and both couples hugged and kissed respectively.  
  
"Take care of Caroline, and careful with her," Jen said. "She's a born psychic," she warned.  
  
"That would explain the flying bottle I saw the other day in her room," Jessica commented. "Have a safe trip."  
  
"We will. Take care," Alex said.  
  
"And we hope you can finally have a child, it's the best thing in the world," Wes yelled at them as they walked towards the ship.  
  
Finally both former officers were absorbed by the ship's teleportation system, and disappeared from sight. Wes and Jessica took their sunglasses out and put them on for protection when the ship began taking off, sending sand flying in all directions.  
  
As the ship moved fast towards the time hole, Jen looked down through the window and said to Alex: "This is a new beginning for us."  
  
"Yes it is," he agreed. "I'll be happy just to have you," he commented, holding her hand and closing his eyes as the ship entered the hole and began spinning furiously.  
  
From the ground Wes and Jessica saw the ship enter the time hole and then turned and began walking towards the limo. Once inside, Wes asked: "Now what?"  
  
"Now we go home and sit down to revise the contract with the Brazilians, we have a meeting the day after tomorrow with them, and tomorrow we are meeting legal and Eric, because the Silver Guardians who disappeared never returned, and we have to see if that is our fault or not--" Jessica was cut off by Wes's lips over hers.  
  
"Jessica," he whispered.  
  
"I know, I know, I'll leave the work for later," she said.  
  
"No," he denied, shaking his head. "Never change."  
  
You showed me faith is not blind.  
I don't need wings to help me fly  
Miracles happen once in a while  
When you believe  
You showed me dreams come to light  
That taking a chance on us was right  
Oh, things will come  
With a little time  
When you believe  
  
The end.  
  
**************************************************  
  
The last verses belong to the song "Miracles Happen" by Myra, and it can be found as part of the soundtrack of "The Princess Diaries". 


End file.
